Incoming President Donald Trump announced on Nov. 23 his nomination of Brooke Rollins for Agriculture Secretary. She served in the first Trump presidency, in interagency work on various initiatives. She then served since 2021 as president and CEO of the new group founded that year, the America First Policy Institute. Earlier, Rollins headed the Texas Public Policy Institute for 15 years.
Her agriculture veneer comes from being born, educated and resident in Texas, an agriculture state. She has a law degree, and she got a degree in “agriculture development” from Texas A & Am, referring to farm and rural life advocacy, not to training in any of the hands-on practices and science involved in farming and ranching.
Trump’s nomination statement refers to her early experience in 4H and FFA (Future Farmers of America); he praised, “Brooke’s commitment to support the American Farmer, defense of American Food Self-Sufficiency and the restoration of Agriculture-dependent American Small Towns.” What’s in store remains to be seen.
On record, Rollins is fiercely ideological on what she regards as American liberty and priorities. For example, she demands “winning” in Southwest Asia. She demands all-out U.S. support for the current military actions by Israel and the U.S. throughout the region. Last month she co-wrote an article
with Trump’s nominee for the EPA, Lee Zeldin (also at the America First Institute), headlined “Oct. 7 Marked a Civilizational Battle for Both Israel and the US,” saying that, “the men who hunt Jews [in the past and now] will hunt us as Americans [in the original] too,” so our military has “an imperative to be strong” and win against all adversaries, from Yemen to Iraq and Iran.
