The first 100 days of the Trump-Vance administration have proved it: America is back. Nations in conflict are coming to the negotiating table. Our imbalanced trade commitments are being reevaluated. And our southern border has never been more secure.
Each of these accomplishments, and many more that we will continue to share as we celebrate the American people’s return to power in Washington, are due to the bold leadership of President Donald J. Trump.
And at the Department of Agriculture, we hear every day from farmers who are grateful to have their president back. These are the small family farmers who have been undercut by foreign countries that dump their subsidized products on American soil.
They are the ranchers who saw the U.S. beef trade surplus during President Trump’s first term crash to a deficit under the previous administration.
They are the foresters who were told by the Biden administration to hang up their chainsaws, which put their livelihoods on the sidelines and our forests at high risk of wildfires.
And they are the men and women who feed, fuel, and clothe our nation.
That’s why we at USDA are focused on putting farmers first and unleashing a new era of rural prosperity in communities across the country.
At the end of the first 100 days of the Trump-Vance administration, we are focused not only on the fast and broad policy changes President Trump has effectuated, but more importantly, on how we will occupy the time the American people have given us to save our nation.
Going forward, we will continue to monitor tariffs and non-tariff barriers from other countries and support U.S. farmers and ranchers in a timely manner. We will reverse the previous administration’s disastrous agricultural trade deficit by aggressively expanding market access for American-grown commodities across the globe.
That’s why I’ll be traveling to the United Kingdom in May as a representative of American farmers, ranchers, and producers. When the American people voted for President Trump last year, they made it clear they were no longer satisfied with the status quo of quiet trade promotion. We are turning the page and proactively sharing the bounty of American agricultural production with importers who value our products as the best in the world.
We will also keep doing everything we can to unleash American energy. The domestic production of timber, minerals, and biofuels will remain a key focus of President Trump’s energy agenda, and we at USDA are using every lever at our disposal to ensure foresters, miners, and producers can worry less about burdensome regulations and more about the work that fuels our nation and the world.
And as President Trump realigns the scope of the federal government, we are also evaluating the effectiveness of our nutrition programs. To date, four states—Indiana, Iowa, Nebraska, and Arkansas—have submitted waivers through our food stamp program that not only prioritize healthy choices but also do right by the American taxpayers who fund the program.
As governors across the country request USDA to remove food stamp funding for soda and candy in their states, we at USDA are also working with Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to Make America Healthy Again. President Trump has made this a priority of his administration, and the goals we have set out are both measurable and achievable. Secretary Kennedy and I will be conducting a line-by-line review of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and are committed to releasing the final guidelines ahead of its statutory deadline at the end of the year.
These victories are a fraction of the accomplishments we’ve been able to secure under the leadership of President Donald J. Trump. We are on the cusp of taking back the country we call home, and the Trump-Vance administration is just getting started.
Brooke L. Rollins is the 33rd secretary of Agriculture.
The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.
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