President-elect Donald Trump nominated Brooke Rollins as his secretary of agriculture on Saturday, rounding out his cabinet just weeks after he won the presidential election.
Rollins, who grew up on a farm, is the co-founder and president of the America First Policy Institute, a non-profit launched in 2021 to keep alive Trump’s policy agenda. She was formerly the director of the Office of American Innovation and the acting director of the United States Domestic Policy Council during Trump’s first administration.
“As our next Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke will spearhead the effort to protect American Farmers, who are truly the backbone of our Country,” Trump said in a statement. “A proud Graduate of Texas A&M University, Brooke earned a Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Agriculture Development, and J.D., with Honors.”
“From her upbringing in the small and Agriculture-centered town of Glen Rose, Texas, to her years of leadership involvement with Future Farmers of America and 4H, to her generational Family Farming background, to guiding her four kids in their show cattle careers, Brooke has a practitioner’s experience, along with deep Policy credentials in both Nonprofit and Government leadership at the State and National levels,” he added.
Although Rollins was said to be in the running for Trump’s chief of staff, that position was one of the first to be filled, by campaign manager Susie Wiles. USDA secretary was one of the last roles to be filled.
Rollins’s confirmation by the Senate is expected to go well, compared to that of some of Trump’s more controversial picks. If confirmed, Rollins will oversee the Department of Agriculture’s $430 billion-plus budget, and will likely work with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Trump’s pick for Department of Health and Human Services secretary, to reform agriculture policy and “make America healthy again.”
The agriculture secretary nomination was one in a flurry of appointments Trump announced this weekend, including nominations for Centers for Disease Control and prevention director, Food and Drug Administration commissioner, and surgeon general, among others.
“It will be the honor of my life to fight for America’s farmers and our Nation’s agricultural communities,” Rollins said on X. “WHO’S READY TO MAKE AGRICULTURE GREAT AGAIN?”