The Exchanges

Q hundred, over a 100,000 employees, 4500 locations, and an over two hundred billion dollar annual budget. So really an incredible, um, department to oversee. But before we get into the USDA and talk a little bit about some of the work you're doing and have been doing, maybe we can talk a little bit about your background. Did you grow up on a farm? How did you get into agriculture?

A So yes, I grew up, uh, in a really small town in Texas. We, uh, were not farmers or ranchers per se in Texas. I grew up on a small farm. We raised animals. We bailed hay. But my family, my mom's side of the family, Uh, my grandmother, they had a big row crop farm in Minnesota. So I spent every summer, um, on that farm, corn, wheat, soy, uh, pretty much everything you could consider and think of. So that was my row crop, um, which has actually been very, very helpful because coming from Texas and being more of a cattle raiser and being in cattle more, which is what I'm in in Texas, uh, it's really great to have sort of both sides of the house and, and I'm very appreciative to that. But yes, grew up in a very small town. Uh, we didn't have much. I was raised by a single mom, but we did have the land. And, uh, and on that land, we raised our animals. Again, we built our hay. I barrel raised every Friday night. I grew up in four H and FFA, went to Texas A&M on an agriculture scholarship, uh, studied soil science and meats and, and feeds and feeding, and, and really dove way into agriculture. Knowing I would go to law school, um, I really had a heart for understanding Policy and the people, but thought I would really stay in ag, um, for the rest of my life. And obviously sometimes the, the path diverts and changes, but, um, even over the, you know, the 20 years since I last worked 1…

AI assessment note: “I grew up on a small farm. We raised animals. We bailed hay.”

Q dismantle the department that they're overseeing. What's your kind of mandate with agriculture? Is there a reform needed in agriculture like others have declared for their departments? Does it need to be rebuilt from the ground up? Does it need to be rethought or does agriculture work well and in the best interest of America? What's your general kind of take and your general mandate on the Department of Ag?

A Yeah, well, and I think when you say, you know, does agriculture Agriculture work well. I think you mean USDA. So the fact that we have an agency with a hundred plus thousand employees, um, the largest budget item is food stamps that the SNAP program, uh, there are so many different divisions and contract. I mean, we are just getting started. We've already canceled almost six billion dollars, a 100,200 thousand dollars at a time. That's a significant amount of contracts that we're canceling. We are reducing in force to make sure that we are as efficient, as effective, and as flexible as possible. There is no doubt that USDA absolutely needs a realignment, a reconstruction, and a significant reorganization. So that's what we are working through right now. The idea that USDA should be, you know, we've got other programs, and those are important, like food stamps, although they need significant reform. But this agency should be, should be about farmers and ranchers all day, every day, and our ag producers, and how do we, talking about the industry now, an industry that every year we lose more family farms, every year things get outsourced to other countries, including China and Brazil, every year it gets harder and harder for most of our farmers to make a living where they can support their family, Pass their fourth, fifth, and sixth generation farmer ranch on to the next, their s…

AI assessment note: “USDA absolutely needs a realignment, a reconstruction, and a significant reorganization.”

Q And how do you think about where you want to take this department with that background over time?

A Yeah, it's a great, this is, you're the first person to really dig down on this that I've talked to since I took the job, and it's, it's an extremely insightful And thoughtful question, um, that you raise because that's 100% true. My entire background is how to get government out of people's lives and how to get government quote handouts out of, um, the private sector and how do we, you know, downsize significantly everything that, that the government stands for and how do we let the markets work? Um, I think two things. First, I have become an absolute avid believer in President Trump's vision on putting America first. Um, for years, you know, I was, well, the, the cheaper goods from China are good for everybody, and, and they allow those at the bottom of the economic ladder to have a better quality of life, and this is the market at work. Now that I've seen it in the first term, but especially as the agriculture secretary realizing how poorly our products are treated on the world stage, The tariff, uh, it just is, it's stunning to me that we let this go on for so long. The way Argentina treats our beef, the way China treats, the way, the way Brazil treats our corn, I mean, the way the UK treats our pork, and that's just in my world. I haven't even really studied the automakers and others. There is no doubt that that realignment has to happen for America to continue to thrive …

AI assessment note: “realigning my thinking... not free markets for the sake of free markets, but fair markets”

Q So now you're in the cabinet, you're running the Department of Agriculture, it's been in 70 some odd days, hundred days for the president. How have the first hundred days gone? What have been kind of the highlights for you in starting this term out?

A Everyone says, are you exhausted? And it's a seven day a week, 20 hours a day. And for me, there are days where I'm tired of me. I think I got here to D.C. I was in, ah, doing tours all day yesterday with Secretary Kennedy. The day before I was in Ohio. I think that's right, yes. Um, two days before that I was in North Dakota. Then I'm back here. It's literally a five AM to midnight, seven days a week effort, but it's just such a gift. I mean, who gets to do this? And at an inflection point in our country's history, this is, I feel like this is 1776 all over again. And I think about never ever to compare myself to, you know, the founding fathers, but those guys were farmers and teachers and businessmen before they declared independence from the greatest power The world had ever known, and that was Great Britain and the king. And, and so in many ways, I feel like our cabinet and this president has God's hand and that that's what we were called for as well. So while certainly we're working very hard and the hundred days has been extremely fast paced, I think that's why you see the joy in the work is because we're ready for it.

AI assessment note: “while certainly we're working very hard and the hundred days has been extremely fast paced”

Q can share a little bit of the anecdotes. What's it been like with the Doge representatives that have come into the Department of Ag? Are they embedded? Are they long term? Do you believe that Doge plays as an, forget Elon. Yeah. But as, um, a department or whatever it is, ad hoc department, does it play a long term role in continuously improving and identifying opportunities for cost savings?

A 1000%. And it's, it's like all my dreams have come true. You know, I'll never forget when the president came down the escalator in 2015, and he was talking about for every one new regulation, we're going to get rid of two. And I thought, are you kidding me? For the first time, are we making deregulation fun and sexy? Like, I've been talking about this in Texas, and no one wanted to talk about it, right? Even Republicans, like, oh, you know, we can never get rid of, once government's there, we just have to make it better. And Donald Trump, 10 years ago, started talking about it, made it a thing. The first year of Trump won for every one new regulation, 22 win. The next year it was 17, the next year 13, I think, and then by the end, because it got a little bit harder to find them, but still, it wasn't two to one. Our average was like 10 to one in the first Trump administration. Well, then you add on Elon Musk and his, you know, team of geniuses who normally would never even think about being in government. Not that they wouldn't want to, but they wouldn't even begin to know how. You combine that with this idea that we're returning power to the people We're downsizing government. We are not in charge. We're not here for the people to serve us like some monarchy. We're here to serve the people, and that's a fundamental shift in the way we're thinking in the federal government, and …

AI assessment note: “1000%. And it's, it's like all my dreams have come true.”

Q How did you end up in Trump One?

A Well, that is a really crazy long story. Um, I, for my entire policy, my heart is in public policy. I have just, I, I first thought I may end up at seminary and be a pastor, um, a youth pastor, and that was really where I was felt very called, uh, after college, but then realized that if I lean into public policy and I didn't know what that meant, I didn't even know what a think tank was, but that I could perhaps change more and help more people Um, going that route than if I just worked at a church. And so, um, I really kind of Got excited about that idea, and I was a big firm litigator, uh, for a couple of years after law school, did a clerkship, a federal clerkship, uh, for a judge in Dallas in the Northern District, and then, um, got a call from Rick Perry, also another big time Texas Aggie, ag major from a, from an ag background, a rural town, and he'd just become governor. And in Texas, George W. Bush had just become president, the old hanging chad, You know, when they think the election integrity issues are new to today, they are not new to today. This goes way back. But, uh, Rick Perry became governor. He was lieutenant governor and he called me and I was sitting, um, billing my every six minutes, the billable hour for this big law firm in Dallas. Loved the firm. Didn't love the work. And he said, why don't you come join my new team down here in Austin? I was 28 years o…

AI assessment note: “Well, that is a really crazy long story.”