Press Briefing: Brooke Rollins Speaks to Reporters Outside the White House - September 29, 2026

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Hi, everybody, I'm supposed to be on stage, uh, at MAHA in 10 minutes, so we're gonna take two questions.

Two questions.

Um, before I start, though, let me just say it is one of the best days in my 18 months, 19 months here at USDA with this Trump administration because I have farmers in. These are actual corn, soybean, uh, alfalfa farmers in. They're helping us from Illinois, Iowa, Texas, some other great states, helping us figure out from their combines directly how to modernize the data that we are collecting at USDA to better serve them.

So it's a big day. I just took them to the White House and really excited to have them. So that's why I've got a little bit more of a contingent than I normally have. So, yes.

Pres- -- Presi- -- President Trump announced America.gov today. What would you like these farmers to know and everyone, everyone in the ag industry about America.gov, what can it do for them?

Well, America.gov, I know probably a lot of you covered it. It's a really big day. Right now, I think they said there are 25,000 different government websites. No one feels this more, um, more, more poignantly or, or more uh, int- -- just harshly than these farmers standing behind me. Because to be a farmer in America, especially a row crop farmer, um, using the Farm Service Agency, using NRCS, using all of the different programs, they have until we walked in the door, 500 different contractors, dozens and dozens of different websites.

And so for the last year, we've actually already been working under One Farmer, One File to make it easier for these farmers. But the step forward today with America.gov is really what we've all been working to do, but harnessing that so that the 40 million Americans that use the government websites every day, whether that's for benefits or for farm services or to get a passport or to change your name, uh, our Design Service Studio under Joe Gebbia with President Trump, have decided that no more 1980s, 1970s, uh, interfacing for our American citizens.

This is gonna be the best customer service when we walk out of here in two years that, uh, that anyone could possibly have. So it's a big day. It's just the beginning, but there's so much more to come.

Secretary Rollins. Secretary Rollins.

Well, we appreciate the customer service side of things. They're also struggling out there because of tariffs and the war in Iran. What is your message to those farmers? Maybe some of them may be struggling right now, uh, as they see the war continue and the tariffs continue.

Well, that's right. Listen, the president made a decision. It's one that we obviously all believe in wholeheartedly that for Iran to have a nuclear weapon is a catastrophic, um, idea for the world and that that had to be stopped. And so even this morning, the president talked about the, the short-term challenges, but for the long-term safety, security, prosperity, and peace for our country.

And so I, uh, obviously believe that as well. I think most of our farmers see that and understand it. But let me answer specifically to your question regarding tariffs and probably diesel prices and some other things. The first most important thing, and I think we can actually look at the China, um, agreement that they came to late last week.

We're gonna have, uh, more agriculture products going to China than we have in a long time. That $30 billion that, uh, the two sides have agreed to, 90% of that is agriculture. We're gonna be removing -- for the first time we're removing tariffs on beef and other ag products in China. So that specifically is very important.

But when you look at the president's full approach to trade in America and recalibrating to put America first, we are gonna have record exports this year in ethanol, second-best year for dairy, uh, second or third-best year for tree nuts. We are saying corn is at an all-time record moving out across the world.

So the president's tariff approach is working, but it is a long time recalibration, um, long-time needed recalibration, but we'll continue to pay dividends as we open up those markets around the world. I'll also say that we have higher numbers on record, uh, at least from the last three to four years for corn, wheat, and a lot of our row crops.

So we're seeing some really good numbers, uh, as these exports pick up around the world. So the trend is going in the right direction. When you look at, and I said I'm headed to a MAHA event, when you look at how Secretary Kennedy and I flipped the dietary guidelines, changed the stocking standards for food stamps to get healthier food onto shelves, the harvest to hallways for school lunches, making sure that we're getting real food on the plates of our kids, uh, those in the hospitals, those in the military, et cetera, that's the -- and yours to the benefit of frankly all Americans.

But second to that is to our farmers and ranchers that for too long have not been at the seed as, the government procurement, um, opportunities go out, et cetera, et cetera. So moving to real food, putting real food back at the center of the dietary guidelines. Last year we had 10% more purchases of real food than we had in any year prior, as Americans are shifting to healthier, nutrient-dense, locally grown food.

So we're working really hard to, uh, change that, to make sure that we're buying American, that we're reshoring things like fertilizer and seeds and other things for our farmers, uh, to support them. There is no freedom without farm security. There is no freedom without us being able to feed ourselves. In 2023, America became a net importer of food.

That is now what we're trying to change, to become a net exporter again, to feed ourselves and to feed the world, and we're making a tremendous amount of progress. More work to do. We fully understand that, but, but really, really, um, right moving, moving in the right direction going forward. Thank you all so much. I'm so sorry.