According to The Daily Caller, Donald Trump has narrowed his energy secretary pick down to three people — Ray Washburne, Joe Manchin and Rick Perry.



Trump is expected to make a decision on the subject Monday afternoon and plans to announce the pick Tuesday.

Washburne — a Dallas-based investor who owns pipeline, refinery maintenance, and well-drilling companies — has emerged as a Trump favorite for the job, a transition insider told The Daily Caller.

The source explained that energy infrastructure will be a big push for Trump and Washburne has the experience to handle it.

Washburne is said to be a favorite of Steve Bannon, a top Trump advisor. He’s had meetings on the subject with Trump, Bannon, Donald Trump, Jr., and Jared Kushner — Trump’s son-in-law. Washburne has also privately met with Ivanka Trump about the role.

Meanwhile, incoming White House chief of staff Reince Priebus is pushing for Trump to appoint Sen. Joe Manchin as energy secretary.

Priebus is hoping the Republican Party can capture the Democratic senator’s seat in West Virginia.

TheDC reports that that would happen by either convincing the state’s Democratic governor to appoint a Republican to finish the two years left in Manchin’s term, or by winning the seat outright in 2018. Although Trump won 67.9 percent of the state’s vote, it’s not clear what leverage Priebus would have to convince Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin to appoint a Republican.

Manchin is scheduled to meet with Trump on Monday morning.

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Some reports Sunday suggested that Perry is an energy frontrunner, but Trump officials are tempted to hire him instead to run the Department of Veterans Affairs, although Perry has turned down the offer once before because he wants the energy secretary job.

Perry is scheduled to meet with the president-elect on Monday afternoon. The team is once again expected to offer Perry the VA gig, TheDC has learned.

Perry is reportedly considered a “confirmation nightmare” by some Trump insiders who point to his role on the board of Energy Transfer Partners. The company’s pipeline is at the center of a highly publicized dispute with Native Americans in North Dakota, who say that the project would cut through burial grounds.

Both Perry and Washburne were spotted with Trump yesterday at the Army-Navy Game in Baltimore.

Bloomberg reports that another Democratic senator from an energy-producing state — Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota — is also in the running, as Trump interviewed Heitkamp at Trump Tower in New York on Dec. 2.

If Trump picks any of the four he’ll break with recent tradition of putting scientists at the top of the Energy Department. Two scientists have run the Energy Department during the Obama administration: Ernest Moniz, the incumbent, is a nuclear physicist, and his predecessor was Steven Chu, a Nobel laureate who directed the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and was a professor of physics and molecular and cellular biology.

Who do you hope Trump will pick as energy secretary? Sound off in the comments below!





