(Bloomberg) — President-elect Donald Trump is expected to choose Brooke Rollins, who heads a policy institute created to promote his agenda, as US secretary of agriculture, the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.
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Rollins’ name emerged after CNN reported Friday that Trump was expected to select Kelly Loeffler, a former senator from Georgia and prominent donor. Trump weighed Loeffler for the role but is poised to pick Rollins instead, the Journal said, citing people with knowledge of the matter.
No nominee is final until announced by Trump — as evidenced by the contest for Treasury secretary, which spilled into public view and ended up with the president-elect picking hedge fund executive Scott Bessent, who beat out rivals in a dramatic competition after starting off as the front-runner.
Rollins is president of the America First Policy Institute, which she founded in 2021 to lay the groundwork for Trump’s eventual return to the White House. Its tasks included creating how-to guides for incoming staffers and policy recommendations from people who served during the first Trump administration.
The institute’s chair is Linda McMahon, a longtime Republican donor and head of the Small Business Administration during Trump’s prior term whom he chose on Tuesday to lead the Department of Education.
The Agriculture Department’s role goes beyond farm policy — it also manages food stamps, school lunches and other nutrition programs, and it’s responsible for forest conservation, food inspections and rural development.
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