Sec. Brooke Rollins Asked Point Blank What She Would Tell Farmers Impacted By Tariffs

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins spoke about President Trump's tariffs and their impacts on farmers and ranchers.

Transcript

00:00Go ahead. What would you tell Americans who rely on SNAP? Should they be expecting potential cuts

00:05to those services? So I think it's really important also to understand that on SNAP and

00:09on food stamps in the last administration, we had a massive influx of dollars, almost a

00:1435 to 40 percent increase of the SNAP program under the Biden administration. That didn't

00:21necessarily mean more money to families. It just meant a massive new layer of bureaucracy,

00:25of NGOs, et cetera. So as we are realigning and reforming the SNAP program in partnership

00:30with our great friends, G.T. Thompson, John Bozeman, others on the Hill, that ensuring that

00:35as we are looking at that, the money goes to what it was intended. And that is a supplemental

00:40nutrition program for American families that need it the most. And that's what we're really

00:44focused on. Secretary, on tariffs, to farmers who say they are feeling the impacts right

00:49now, wondering how long this is going to go on, when trade deals will be announced. What

00:54can you tell them about the timeline? Well, what I have been saying to our great farmers

00:59and ranchers, but especially our row croppers, who are very much affected by the ongoing negotiations,

01:05that relief is in sight, that deals are being negotiated right now, that when the president

01:10says he's got 100 countries who are coming to the table, he is absolutely right. Next week,

01:16I'll be in England discussing these things. A few weeks after, I'll be in Italy. Then soon

01:20after that, Vietnam and Japan and India. And I'm reflective of a larger cabinet effort on

01:26behalf of this president to get out into the world, to expand the markets. And from, you

01:30know, with a few exceptions, for the most part, our agriculture community, our farmers and

01:35our ranchers have been extremely gracious, supportive, excited and encouraged, even in

01:42this time of uncertainty. And I know we've seen the market fluctuate, our soy and corn farmers,

01:47especially some of our hog farmers, especially. But at the end of the day, what we're doing

01:51is we're realigning an entire world economy around American products. And that will affect

01:56our farmers and our ranchers more than any other, I believe, more than any other American

02:01producer and whatever they're producing. And so I'm actually so excited and I'm so encouraged.

02:06And the conversations that I have had, which I obviously can't talk about here, have been incredibly

02:11encouraging with our partners around the world. And so I'm just so grateful to President Trump.

02:16I'm so grateful to Secretary Besant, Secretary Lutnik, to Jamison Greer, who've been leading

02:20these efforts. I think that there are major breakthroughs that will be announced very, very

02:24soon. Thank you all so much. Great.