Speculation is heating up over Donald Trump’s expected nominee to head the USDA. High-profile positions like secretary of state understandably attract the political spotlight, but the MAGA message has blended with MAHA and Team Kennedy. Appointments to health-related agencies are important bellwethers of how much influence Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will bring to bear in the incoming administration.
Thomas Massie vs “Everybody Else”
The Kennedy favorite for USDA appears to be Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie, an off-grid homesteader and darling of food rights activists favoring greater food liberties. Massie has championed the PRIME Act, which would relegate the intrastate processing and sale of meats to state rather than federal oversight. Strongly supported by libertarians, Massie has not been the Trump loyalist some of the other candidates for the USDA spot have established themselves to be.
At least fifteen potential nominees are reportedly being mulled for the top farming spot. Still, critics of ultra-processed foods are balking at the idea of the position being filled by anyone who operates massive industrial farms or formerly worked at companies such as Eli Lilly & Co. and Monsanto Corporation. The MAHA movement is popular with a bipartisan cross-section of Americans concerned more about food toxins than cow “emissions,” and who see Massie’s appointment as a critical litmus test of whether Donald Trump will incorporate libertarian voices in his administration.
The Lexington Herald-Leader stated:
“Libertarians across the country are attempting to boost Massie’s candidacy. The Libertarian Party of Idaho declared him ‘the best man there is to oversee the USDA,’ and the Libertarian Party of Iowa called him ‘a champion for food freedom and raw milk rights.’”
The Kennedy Effect
As more Americans have shifted uneasily away from traditional two-party dominance, independent voters (including many libertarians) have been drawn by Kennedy’s “baby-bear” middle ground between the hot and cold of the donkey and elephant in the room. The MAHA message similarly resonated across party lines, and many erstwhile Kennedy detractors conceded that his calls to clean up the nation’s food supply were timely. Amish farmers voted not because they suddenly shifted their theological views or loved Donald Trump but because they watched the farm-raised produce of fellow Amish farmer Amos Miller dumped on the ground by federal agents.
Donald Trump’s pick for USDA is thus more nuanced than industrial business-as-usual. Kennedy’s nomination to HHS sent Big Pharma stock prices tumbling: Massie’s selection as Secretary of Agriculture could send Big Ag and Big Chem shares in the same direction. This negative signal to stock exchanges would suggest “change we can believe in” to Kennedy supporters, libertarians, homesteaders, Amish and other smallholder farmers, and Americans eyeing their grocery store shelves for dubious ingredients as well as prices.
Massie’s Case for USDA
To some people, the USDA may not seem as important as the FBI or CIA. Yet this cabinet position is tied closely to the health and food-freedom agenda announced by the Trump-Kennedy electoral alliance. Farming is connected to rural America and the red wave that propelled Donald Trump to a clear 2024 victory. The pick for the next head of the USDA may be clear for libertarians and food rights activists, but it’s a weighty choice for the president-elect. Whoever Trump chooses will set a tone for MAHA and may indicate how well the incoming administration can build on its promises for a continuing popular mandate in 2026 and beyond.
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