Trump Train Keeps Rolling Along: We Have a New Secretary of Agriculture

By Bob Hoge | 12:23 PM on February 13, 2025

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The Trump Train keeps chugging on, and on Thursday, the Senate voted to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary for Health and Services while the Judiciary Committee sent FBI Director-nominee Kash Patel to the full Senate by a party-line vote of 12-10.

And now we have another confirmation, as Brooke Rollins has just been confirmed as Secretary of Agriculture by a vote of 72-28.

U.S. Senate CONFIRMS Brooke Rollins to be Secretary of Agriculture, 72-28. pic.twitter.com/JNi8WzlorP
— CSPAN (@cspan) February 13, 2025

As the Heartland Institute wrote here at RedState in a December 2024 editorial, Rollins is a climate realist, not a fear-monger:

Rollins has both a law degree and a degree in agricultural development and served as the director of the Domestic Policy Council during Trump’s first term, making her well qualified to run the DOA. Rollins knows both the challenges facing farmers as well as the ins and outs of the regulations and laws governing agriculture policy.
Climate alarmists and any farmers who have joined their crusade against modernity built on fossil fuels are right to be concerned. Rather than being an unknown, as Inside Climate News implies, Rollins’ views on climate change and climate policy are well known. She is a climate realist. Rollins has previously spoken at The Heartland Institute’s America First Energy Conference, and supported withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement and ending the Obama administration’s disastrous Clean Power Plan.
Rollins is well aware that data and research clearly demonstrate, contrary to false claims made in Inside Climate News’ report, that weather hasn’t become more extreme, and farmers haven’t faced worsening planting, growing, or harvesting conditions over the past few decades.

I know that farmers and ranchers will have a friend in Brooke Rollins, @POTUS’ choice for secretary of agriculture.

She understands the needs of agriculture producers, and she knows how to deliver results. pic.twitter.com/Xw9UQp51UW
— Leader John Thune (@LeaderJohnThune) February 13, 2025

NEW: There's a Twist in Who Will Run the Trump Ag Department

Trump’s success at filling his Cabinet has been virtually unprecedented:

The move means that Trump has had 16 nominees approved in less than four weeks — a total that far outpaces totals seen during his first term or former President Biden’s time in office.

Rollins joins RFK Jr., Attorney General Pam Bondi, DHS Head Kristi Noem, DNI Tulsi Gabbard, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency John Ratcliffe, among others, in winning their votes.

The final vote for Kash Patel as FBI Director will go down next week. That one promises to be a fiery affair.

In the meantime, congratulations to Secretary Rollins.