Burgum claims U.S. could have "$100 trillion" worth of untapped natural resources

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum is convinced that U.S. soil hides natural resources whose value "could be in the $100 trillion" range, which would triple the national debt, which Biden left at over $36 trillion.

Asked during a event on Breitbart News about the high national debt, he chose to highlight the resources the country has to deal with it: "What is our debt?" 36 and a half trillion. What are our assets? I mean, I challenge anyone to try to find a current balance sheet of the United States of America."

The U.S. has 700 million acres on land and 2.5 billion acres on the high seas

Burgum then explained his calculations about the true wealth of the US, noting that the natural resources of the land should be taken into account in the balance sheet with respect to the debt:

"I can tell you, as the head of the Interior Department, that within Interior alone, we have 500 million acres of land. Brook Rollins has another 200 million in the U.S. Forest Service, in U.S. grasslands. That makes 700 million acres of surface, plus 700 million acres of subsurface where we hold mineral rights, critical minerals, oil and gas, as well as metallurgical and thermal coal resources."

"And there’s 2.5 billion acres of offshore, many of which have not been even explored. All of which represent huge, huge assets for us. So if you take our forests, our lands, our grasslands, our lands that are near urban areas, our mineral resources and offshore resources, I think the number is… Double, triple, what our national debt is. It could be a 100 trillion."

A value that "could lower the 10-year interest rate."

Burgum further stressed, that it is important to make this data public, since that "might lower the 10-year rate on interest rates because people would say ‘Wow, these guys got it covered and they have a plan on how they’re going to be able to pay down this debt and they’re actually in really good shape"