Nicole Shanahan addresses MAHA’s disappointment with Trump pick Brooke Rollins for Agriculture Secretary “I know a lot of farmers out there saw that pick and were really upset.” “It ended up going to Brooke Rollins, who is not someone I’ve ever come across in the agricultural world, certainly not within the regenerative agriculture world. A few weeks ago, there was a committee formed, wonderful, wonderful farmers … who were called by Bobby Kennedy’s team and the MAHA team. There was a committee put together to put together a list of farmers or entrepreneurs or leaders in the agriculture space who we would submit for consideration. True leaders in the soil and regenerative movement put together an exhaustive list. What I heard was that at Mar-a-Lago at the time, there was this horse-trading happening, and Agriculture was put into a different bucket than the HHS departments. I was very loud about that during our suspension of the campaign and endorsing Trump. I had hope that we would get Ag. When it came down to the last few days before the Ag pick was gonna be confirmed, I went out to everybody I knew. I went out to even Steve Bannon, who is literally Donald Trump’s biggest supporter, and he was on board. I was hearing murmurs that at the table at Mar-a-Lago … we got very close. John Kempf even got close to getting the nomination. They loved the idea of a real, regenerative Amish farmer representing an important cabinet position. But something happened, as it always seems to, and we got traded out for Brooke Rollins, who I honestly didn’t know much about, but found out she’s the CEO of America First Policy Institute, which raised $21 million and most of that went to the MAGA PAC. During the first Trump Administration, she was acting Director of the United States Domestic Policy Council. Someone close to that first Administration said, ‘we feel that she may have sabotaged some of MAGA’s efforts in Trump’s first term.’ Quite frankly, I’m not sure what they were referring to. And then I was like, okay, what is her connection to Ag? … And I found out that she did 4-H as a child. So, we have that going for us. I’m gonna be honest. I’m worried, I’m concerned. I’ve heard rumors that maybe our Deputy Secretary of Agriculture might be a MAHA farmer, and I’m gonna hold out hope that this is somebody that we can work with.” @NicoleShanahan