Donald Trump taps Brooke Rollins for agriculture secretary, rounding out Cabinet picks

President-elect Donald Trump announced on Saturday that he has picked Brooke Rollins, a former Trump White House policy adviser, to serve as agriculture secretary.

“It is my great honour to nominate Brooke L. Rollins, from the great State of Texas, to serve as the 33rd United States Secretary of Agriculture,” Trump said in a statement, later adding, “Brooke’s commitment to support the American farmer, defence of American food self-sufficiency, and the restoration of Agriculture-dependent American small towns is second to none.”

Rollins is president and CEO of the America First Policy Institute, a group that has put together proposals for a second Trump term. The institute, which has non-profit status, was launched in 2021 by a group of Trump administration veterans.

Like the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, AFPI has sought to provide policy recommendations for the next Republican presidential administration to efficiently stand up an executive branch that will swiftly undo President Joe Biden’s legacy. The organisation’s work has comparatively flown under the radar and has not been as publicly scrutinised by Democrats as Project 2025. The organisation is chaired by Linda McMahon, Trump’s pick for education secretary.

Rollins was also one of the names floated to serve as Trump’s incoming White House chief of staff, but the role ended up going to Susie Wiles, his top campaign adviser. Rollins previously led the White House Domestic Policy Council during Trump’s first term. Before joining the first Trump administration she led the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank.

In his statement on Saturday announcing Rollins’s appointment, Trump highlighted her “practitioner’s experience” with agriculture, including pointing to her “upbringing in the small and agriculture-centred town of Glen Rose, Texas” as well as her involvement in “guiding her four kids in their show cattle careers”.

Rollins subsequently thanked Trump, writing on X, “It will be the honour of my life to fight for America’s farmers and our nation’s agricultural communities. This is big stuff for a small-town ag girl from Glen Rose, TX.”

The agriculture secretary is responsible for overseeing various farm, ranching and forestry industries as well as regulating aspects of food quality, safety and nutrition labelling. More than 70 percent of the US Department of Agriculture’s budget oversees several crucial welfare programs such as free school lunches and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly called food stamps.

The president-elect’s incoming agriculture secretary is also expected to play a role in shaping Trump’s plans for sweeping tariffs, which in his last term saw the US agriculture industry hit hard with huge counter tariffs by allied countries and rivals alike.

Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has vowed to play a role in the administration’s role in shaping the agriculture industry, but Trump and his allies have also proposed making large cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

With Rollins, Trump has now announced the full line-up of his proposed Cabinet secretaries. On Friday night, Trump announced a flurry of new picks to his administration, including three proposed Cabinet secretaries: Scott Turner to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Scott Bessent to lead the Treasury Department and Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Oregon) to lead the Labor Department.

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Azi Paybarah contributed to this report.

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