Brooke Rollins

Announced as Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Agriculture

During the Trump administration, Brooke Rollins was the Director of the Domestic Policy Council and assistant to the president in the Office of American Innovation. Rollins has compared Trump to the likes of other “revolutionaries,” and specifically like the “Founding Fathers” and “Jesus.”

Rollins is currently the CEO of the America First Policy Institute (AFPI), a right-wing group formed in 2021 to continue Trump’s policy agenda. AFPI is populated with several former high-ranking Trump administration officials and has been drafting policies in preparation to staff any future Trump administration. AFPI’s board also includes Trump mega-donor and fracker Tim Dunn, whom Texas Monthly describes as a “billionaire bully who wants to turn Texas into a Christian theocracy.”

Promoting restrictions on voting was described as a priority by Rollins in 2021. She said, “One hundred percent yes […] If we do our job right we will have a package of model legislation for the federal government and state government where they align.” AFPI also has a web page, dubbed “The Real ‘Threats to Democracy’,” that downplays Trump’s role in the January 6th attacks on the Capitol, despite compelling evidence from the bipartisan House Jan. 6th Committee showing otherwise. AFPI also supports claims that the outcome of the 2020 presidential election was the result of voter fraud—a claim debunked as false repeatedly, including by an election data expert hired by Trump.

AFPI is currently providing pro-bono representation for Julie Adams, a Republican election official in Georgia who has been involved in election denial tactics before. Adams was a director for the Tea Party Patriots, a right-wing group that helped organize the “Stop the Steal” rally that preceded the attack on the Capitol on January 6th. She is also listed as a staffer for Cleta Mitchell’s so-called Election Integrity Network. Adams is suing for access to voting records and also wants the court to rule on whether she has the discretion to certify election results or not to certify. That lawsuit was filed May 22, 2024.

AFPI also filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court in support of Trump’s widely criticized claims of absolute immunity.

Trump’s first speech in D.C. after January 6 was at an AFPI event, and the group’s annual galas have been hosted at his Mar-a-Lago resort. AFPI made news when Trump contended that the millions raised by AFPI should be given to him, which would be illegal for AFPI to due to the group’s charitable status.

In December 2023, Trump claimed he would only be a dictator on “Day 1,” and AFPI recently released a national security strategy for Trump, which contended that there are roughly 1,200 national security-related positions that should be filled with Trump loyalists.

Rollins also headed the “Save America Coalition,” a group launched in 2021 that pledged to spend $10 million attacking President Joe Biden’s economic proposals. This group included the Conservative Partnership Institute, the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, and the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF).

From 2003-2018, Rollins led TPPF, a Koch-funded group that assailed efforts to mitigate climate change in Texas and is waging a national crusade against climate action by shaping laws, running influence campaigns and taking legal action in a bid to promote fossil fuels. After the Trump administration ended, Rollins returned to TPPF as a senior advisor. In December 2021, TPPF worked with the Koch funded American Legislative Exchange Council, to pass a bill to punish financial companies that stop investing in oil, gas, and coal by barring them from receiving state government contracts or managing state funds. TPPF also pushes anti-immigrant measures, co-producing a documentary called “Cartel Country” that blames the Biden administration for the number of people from violence and chaos in Central America seeking safe refuge in the U.S. In 2016, The Center for Media and Democracy found that TPPF was at one point listed as a creditor for Peabody Energy—the world’s largest private-sector coal company at the time. Her successor at TPPF was Kevin Roberts, who now helms the Heritage Foundation.

Note: Individuals included in the “Supply Chain” risk scenario would have decision-making purview over a regulatory space that greatly influences supply chains in key industries (e.g. agriculture, healthcare, technology, consumer goods), or whose influence on domestic or foreign policy could greatly disrupt aspects of supply chains, including shipping and logistics, trade agreements, and labor availability.