Brooke Rollins, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead USDA, has a thin record when it comes to agricultural policy, but farm groups will be counting on her to be their advocate in an administration that’s likely to include some well-known critics of farm and food policy.
Backers of Rollins say her close connection to Trump as a former White House adviser and head of the America First Policy Institute makes her a valuable ally because she will have the president’s ear.
“You need someone, and USDA needs someone, who is going to call the White House and get the call returned,” said Ted McKinney, CEO of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture, who was undersecretary for trade and foreign agricultural affairs during Trump’s first term.
Rollins’ “relationship with the president-elect, her time with him over the years, the work she’s done at the America First Policy Institute … the [White House] Domestic Policy Council, is invaluable. You just cannot put enough of a premium on the value of that," he said.
One of the issues where agriculture will need her involvement will include the effort led by billionaire Elon Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy to slash government spending, he said.
Appointed Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins (center) with her FFA advisor Gary Rosenbusch (right) and fellow FFA members. Rollins was a Texas FFA State Officer. (Photo: @BrookeLRollins on X)Prior to joining the first Trump White House staff, Rollins ran the Texas Public Policy Foundation, an advocate for property rights and fossil fuels that worked to cut regulations and taxes. During her tenure the group grew from three employees to 100.
The group generally doesn’t get involved directly in federal farm policy, although a 2008 commentary backed then-Gov. Rick Perry’s effort to roll back the Renewable Fuel Standard.
“The thing to know about her is that she is such a dynamic leader and she’s been fighting for property rights, water rights, and small landowners in Texas for years, and those policies are inextricably linked to agriculture policy,” said Sherry Silvester, a distinguished senior fellow at TPPF.
Corey Rosenbusch, president and CEO of The Fertilizer Institute and a native of Glen Rose, Texas, knew Rollins growing up. Rosenbusch’s father was Rollins’ FFA leader.
He thinks she could counter the influence of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his allies in public health agencies. Kennedy, a long-time critic of agricultural practices, was chosen to head the Department of Health and Human Services. Martin Makary, an acclaimed surgeon at Johns Hopkins University who links the use of pesticides to cancers, is Trump’s pick to head the FDA.
Rollins “is going to really have access to the president, and they have a very close relationship,” Rosenbusch said. He believes Kennedy’s relationship with Trump is “a little more recent and transactional. Brooke’s has been a lot more long term. … She really is his policy person.”
Russell Boening, president of the Texas Farm Bureau, said he sees Rollins as someone who "thinks through things very thoroughly and looks at them from all sides." As for the impact of RFK Jr. and other critics of farm chemicals, "I think she's going to look at the big picture when it comes to that and realize how important all of our tools are that we use in modern ag," he said.
Boening said a group of Texas Farm Bureau leaders met with her during her White House days.
Health and Human Services secretary: RFK Jr.
Kennedy dropped his presidential bid and began campaigning for Trump in August under the promise he and Trump would “Make America Healthy Again.” During the campaign, Kennedy and MAHA allies said they would fire all nutrition scientists at the Food and Drug Administration.
As secretary of the department, Kennedy would oversee FDA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Institutes of Health, among other agencies. FDA regulates about 80% of the U.S. food supply as well as animal feed, animal drugs and animal biotechnology.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at the Iowa State Fair in 2023 with a map of Summit Carbon Solutions' proposed carbon dioxide pipeline. “For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation when it comes to Public Health,” Trump said in his announcement of Kennedy.
Kennedy's most immediate impact may be on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans – a new version is due out next year – and he and Makary could revise FDA's upcoming "healthy" foods definition. HHS and USDA share oversight of the guidelines process, so Rollins would have input.
FDA commissioner: Martin Makary
Makary is a best-selling author and the Mark Ravitch Chair in Gastrointestinal Surgery at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Makary was featured at a Washington Make American Healthy Again event in September where he referred to the U.S. food supply as "poisoned."
In an announcement, Trump said Makary will work with Kennedy "to, among other things, properly evaluate harmful chemicals poisoning our Nation’s food supply and drugs and biologics being given to our Nation’s youth, so that we can finally address the Childhood Chronic Disease Epidemic.”
CBS News has reported that Kennedy advisers are considering significantly changing rules on food additives, particularly regulations on those considered “generally recognized as safe” by FDA.
FDA shares oversight of pesticides and biotechnology with USDA and EPA. EPA sets tolerances for pesticide residues in food, and FDA enforces those limits. USDA monitors for residues.
Interior secretary-energy czar: Doug Burgum
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, who has championed biofuels and his state’s oil and coal industries, will serve as both interior secretary and the administration’s energy czar. The latter role could be critical to the balance between conventional fossil fuels, renewable energy and biofuels. 
The crowd waved "American Oil from American Soil" signs during North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum's speech at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. He spoke about energy independence and mentioned the benefits of fracking to rural America during his address. (Photo: Lydia Johnson)
As a governor, he’s had to balance those interests. The new Trump administration will invariably deal with conflicts between oil refiners and biofuel producers over the Renewable Fuel Standard. The administration also will face pressure from Congress to retain and extend the new 45Z tax credit for biofuels even as it tries to eliminate much of the climate-related tax incentives created by the Inflation Reduction Act.
Trump said Burgum will oversee programs “involved in the permitting, production, generation, distribution, regulation, transportation, of ALL forms of American Energy.”
As interior secretary, his responsibilities will include enforcement of the Endangered Species Act as well as oversight of the Bureau of Land Management and Bureau of Reclamation.
Burgum ran a short-lived presidential campaign during this election cycle. After dropping out in December 2023, he became a Trump advocate, touting the former president's friendly stance towards oil drilling.
EPA administrator: Lee Zeldin
Former New York Republican congressman and Renewable Fuel Standard critic Lee Zeldin is Trump’s pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency, which among other things regulates the use of pesticides and enforces the Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act.
Zeldin represented New York’s 1st District on eastern Long Island from 2015 to 2023. In 2017, he cosponsored a pair of bills attacking the federal Renewable Fuel Standard. One bill would have repealed the RFS, and the other would have stripped corn ethanol from the RFS. Neither measure went anywhere. As energy czar, Burgum would likely have a say in what Zeldin does with regard to the RFS.
Zeldin had a lifetime 14% score from the League of Conservation Voters. He was a member of the bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus and the Conservative Climate Caucus, a group of GOP members.
Commerce secretary-trade czar: Howard Lutnick
Wall Street veteran Howard Lutnick will take a lead role in the administration's trade policy. In addition to being commerce secretary, he “will lead our Tariff and Trade agenda, with additional direct responsibility for the Office of the United States Trade Representative,” Trump's transition team said in a statement. Lutnick was an outspoken proponent of Trump’s tariff plans in the campaign, calling them an “amazing tool” during a September CNBC interview.
Lutnick's selection left industry leaders puzzled about the future of former USTR Bob Lighthizer, who led trade policy for Trump during his first term. Trump has yet to name a new USTR.
Lutnick will helm a department responsible for administering trade remedy investigations, which Trump used during his first term to levy tariffs on steel and aluminum.
Treasury secretary: Scott Bessent
Bessent, founder of Key Square Capital and an economic adviser to Trump’s campaign, has defended the use of tariffs as a revenue-raising and foreign policy tool. But Bessent has also described Trump’s threat to raise tariffs on Chinese exports to 60% a “maximalist negotiating position.” Some critics say he lacks the tariff enthusiasm to implement Trump’s agenda.
Although Department of Government Efficiency co-leader Elon Musk called Bessent a “business-as-usual choice” in a post on X, many company executives remain relieved by the selection, contrasted with Trump’s more radical selections for other cabinet posts. Howard Lutnick, appointed commerce secretary, was also in the running for the treasury position.
Labor secretary: Lori Chavez-DeRemer
Chavez-DeRemer, R-Ore., a House Agriculture Committee member who lost her re-election bid, is unusually pro-union for a Republican. She served on a bipartisan task force that issued recommendations earlier this year to
House Ag Committee member Rep. Lori Chavez DeRemer, R-Ore. deal with the agricultural labor shortage. The recommendations included a federal heat standard to protect farmworkers in summer.
She is a co-sponsor of the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, which would strengthen the power of unions. The Teamsters union is backing her, and the AFL-CIO acknowledges that she is pro-labor. Some conservatives have criticized her selection for that reason. Conservative radio host Erick Erickson called her a “uniquely terrible pick.”
Office of Management and Budget director: Russ Vought
A co-author of Project 2025, Russ Vought, will return to head the Office of Management and Budget, the position he held during the first Trump administration. He argues that the executive branch has authority to cut off spending without approval from Congress. He also has made the case for reclassifying federal workers so they can be fired more easily.
“The great challenge confronting a conservative president is the existential need for aggressive use of the vast powers of the executive branch to return power— including power currently held by the executive branch—to the American people,” Vought wrote in Project 2025, the blueprint for the next administration developed by the Heritage Foundation.
Vought “will be a driving force for the transformative change our federal government so desperately needs,” said Heritage President Kevin Roberts. “He’ll execute President Trump’s vision to cut red tape, champion American workers and businesses, and advance the America First agenda with precision and resolve.”
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