Trump weighs polarizing former rodeo cowboy for Cabinet post

Former President Donald Trump is considering naming a former rodeo cowboy turned bomb-throwing Texas agriculture commissioner to lead the Agriculture Department if he wins the White House.

Sid Miller, a MAGA loyalist, has warred with agriculture interests and threatened to “hunt” moderate “RINO” Republicans back home, including those who won reelection in 2024 or, as Miller put it, “slipped the noose.” And he has been investigated, but not charged, for misusing state funds for travel to a rodeo. His former political consultant is also set to face trial this summer on theft and bribery charges in a scheme involving hemp licenses from Miller’s department.

Nevertheless, Trump has indicated to some allies that Miller is a leading prospect for the top post at USDA, according to two people familiar with recent conversations Trump has had about his second term plans, who were granted anonymity to discuss the private talks. For the Agriculture Department — and food and agriculture policy, writ large — Miller’s nomination would represent a seismic shift.

As secretary, Miller would likely oversee attempts to claw back billions of dollars the Biden administration has dedicated to fighting climate change in agriculture, and to shrink the size of the country’s largest nutrition programs for low-income Americans. He could also play a key role in shaping the next farm bill — a $1.5 trillion legislative package that determines agriculture, nutrition and rural policy — should the current Congress end up punting it into 2025. And if Miller’s record in Texas is any indication, he’d struggle to find compromise with dissenters — from either party.

Some former Trump officials dismiss the idea that Trump would ultimately put a lightning rod like Miller in charge of USDA, given how many critics he has in the GOP. As agriculture commissioner in Texas, he’s sparred with influential conservative-leaning agriculture groups after he hiked fees for department services. Miller has also openly clashed with Republican Gov. Greg Abbott over pandemic and border policies, and even publicly teased a future challenge to the third-term governor.

When Miller tweeted and then quickly deleted a 2016 post calling Hillary Clinton a “cunt,” Abbott condemned Miller, saying his language was “reprehensible” and “an embarrassment.”

Miller was on Trump’s shortlist for the job in 2016, one of the people familiar with Trump’s USDA discussions said, “until some of the president's advisers got to him and said ‘you got to pick someone who can actually run the department.‘”

If nominated, Miller would have to overcome not just a wall of Democratic opposition in Congress, but significant GOP resistance, as well. One GOP congressional aide who knows Miller bristled at the idea of him leading the Agriculture Department, pointing to his clashes with various Republicans and farm groups in Texas. He “does not take advice nor instruction,” and his circle’s record of ethics probes could spell trouble “when D.C. gets ahold of him,” the aide said.

Miller — who has dismissed his GOP detractors as “the Establishment” — responded by saying he doesn’t engage with anonymous attacks. But he added: “If I am already making the Washington, D.C. swamp so nervous that they are resorting to threats and intimidation, it is the surest sign yet that I am doing something right for America's farmers and ranchers.”

The critiques against him may not hold much water with Trump, either. “I think this will be about who declares the most loyalty,” said one of the people familiar with the conversations about Trump’s USDA considerations.

And Miller is nothing if not a loyal Trump supporter. He likes to note that he was the first Texas statewide official to endorse Trump in 2016, and the first to endorse him for 2024. He continues to secure Trump’s endorsement for reelection and he’s launched a battleground project “to remind voters about the devastating impact of ‘Bidenomics’ on the price of gas and groceries.”

Influential Trump allies also admire Miller’s ability to survive in the state’s politics for so long, despite deteriorating support from some GOP corners.

"While it's an honor to be included in the Secretary of Agriculture discussion, right now my focus is on ensuring we re-elect Donald J. Trump to be our 47th President,” Miller said in response to an inquiry. “There will be plenty of time to talk about Trump's cabinet after he wins in November. Until then, no one will be fighting harder than me to ensure that he does."

Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung, though, argued “there have been no discussions about who will serve in a second Trump Administration.”

“President Trump will ultimately choose the best people for his Cabinet to undo all the damage [Joe Biden] has done to our country,” Cheung said.

Democrats, meanwhile, are almost universally critical of Miller, who accused Biden of agitating a potential civil war and stood by his campaign treasurer Ted Nugent in 2014 after Nugent called then-President Barack Obama a “subhuman mongrel.” In recent weeks, he has, however, worked with the Biden administration and federal agencies to respond to a pair of crises in his state: A rash of devastating wildfires and a rare bird flu outbreak that has hit the state’s large dairy industry. He’s also focused on supplying Texas schools with fresh, locally grown foods, which aligns with policies the Biden administration is pursuing at the federal level.

Miller is the most familiar, and most polarizing, of the names being considered for the USDA job, but he may ultimately lose out to someone with more policy chops. The former president has briefly discussed other prospects for the post, including Kip Tom, his former ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture, and Nebraska’s Agriculture Secretary Sherry Vinton, according to the people familiar with his discussions.

Tom, Trump’s former FAO ambassador, played a key role in shaping Trump’s first USDA as part of his agriculture advisory team and is viewed as more of a policy expert than Miller. He currently runs one of the largest farming operations in Indiana as well as some agricultural operations in Argentina, and is among a small group of former Trump officials and advisers quietly working on potential plans for a second term USDA.

“I'd be honored to serve President Trump. And if he's elected as our president, I would strongly support U.S. agriculture around the world,” Tom said in a recent interview after testifying at a House Agriculture Committee hearing about the threat China poses to American agriculture. But he added that the decision would be up to Trump.

Vinton, who is less known among Trump allies, is the first woman to head Nebraska’s agriculture department. She previously served as vice president of the state’s politically powerful Farm Bureau. Vinton’s office didn’t respond to an inquiry.

Either Tom or Vinton would likely have an easier time winning confirmation in a closely divided Senate than Miller. Tom, notably, has already made it through one Senate confirmation with a bipartisan vote.

One name not on the list of potential second term Ag secretaries: Trump’s former Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue. Perdue, who now serves as chancellor of the University System of Georgia, was seen as more of a mainstream USDA pick eager to champion southern agriculture, not a MAGA lifer, a person close to Perdue noted.

“I think he would be fine not going back,” the person said.

Perdue didn’t respond to an inquiry.

Scores of other senior career staff and top political appointees who served under Perdue at USDA likely won’t return for a second Trump administration, according to two former Trump officials who were granted anonymity to be candid about the matter. Part of that is normal turnover, but some former political appointees have privately expressed disinterest in returning, according to the two former officials.

Regardless of who fills the top political posts at USDA in another Trump administration, former Trump officials say the department would almost certainly move away from Biden’s intense focus on efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the agriculture sector and incentivize rural communities to adopt greener energy sources — despite the current administration’s efforts to build lasting bipartisan support for those programs.

Both Miller and Tom have publicly critiqued climate-friendly policies. During 2021’s deadly winter storm in Texas, Miller, like many Republicans, was quick to blame Texas’ wind power systems for the widespread outages, posting on Facebook that Texas “should never build another wind turbine.” He called for Abbott's Public Utility Commission appointees “to be fired and more gas, coal and oil infrastructure built.”

“To heck with green energy or climate change,” Miller added. “They are overhyped and scientificly challenged,” he said, while misspelling scientifically.

Tom, meanwhile, has openly criticized the subsidies Biden’s USDA is doling out to farmers who adopt greener practices, arguing the cost of such programs will only be passed on to consumers.

“I don't think there's anyone better at preserving planet Earth than an American farmer,” he said in the interview. “The reality is, we don't always need to be incentivized to do this.”

Tom suggested Trump officials could seek to claw back some of the billions in funding congressional Democrats and Biden’s USDA have budgeted for “climate-smart” agriculture programs. Republicans note the Biden administration has struggled to provide the public with comprehensive data to show how much of an impact the programs have had thus far.

“I would like to see the results and what really impact that has had. I think we'll have to make a decision after that,” Tom said.