Ag Secretary Rollins Makes History

USDA is now an openly partisan tool for Republicans

Screen shot of usda.gov at about noon central time on October 1, 2025.

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I grabbed this screen shot of the USDA website about an hour ago.

The media is covering the shutdown as a battle between Democrats and Republicans. I disagree that this is a fair assessment. The battle is about more than partisan politics. For Trump, MAGA, and Republicans, this is a battle about redefining the federal government, the Constitution, our democracy, and our nation as it has developed over 250 years.

I don’t think the federal government has ever been used for this kind of blatantly partisan communication other than the things President Trump has said and done. As a reminder, the POTUS is not covered by the Hatch Act, the law that prevents federal employees from engaging in partisan politics while performing their duties as well as other aspects of their lives.

Without doing further research, I don’t want to claim something like this has never happened, but unless someone can show evidence that is has, I’m willing to suggest it likely hasn’t.

USDA is not the President’s Department. It is the Peoples’ Department. It is ours. While the President appoints leaders, the federal government by law is not to be used for blatantly partisan politics. Have there always been examples of presidents pushing against the guardrails? Yes. But we have never blown up the guardrails and turned the power of our federal government into a purely political tool of the president or his political party.

This is not Secretary Rollins making a statement at a press conference. Using the website that is meant to serve Americans to make a radical, political, partisan statement is new territory.

I’ve been checking other federal agency websites and this is unique as far as I can find. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is making news. HUD website blames looming shutdown on ‘Radical Left’ is the headline at Federal News Network. Many news outlets are covering that story.

I’m not finding any news coverage of USDA. Notice the difference. HUD calls out “Radical Left”. Secretary Rollins actually name drops Democrats. This may be the biggest violation of the Hatch Act in the history of the Hatch Act.

If you’ve bought into the argument that the federal government and the “deep state” has been a tool of one party and Trump is simply correcting that problem, I’m not going to change your mind.

But for the rest of us, this is not a drill. This is new territory. This is a blatant use of the federal government for open, political warfare. Remember, the federal government is meant to serve us by 100% of everyone working in it having taken an oath to the Constitution of the United States of America.

This is the time to stand up and push back. If you aren’t pushing back, then you’re embracing the very thing Trump falsely claims to be fighting. He’s literally turning the entirety of the federal government into a tool to serve him, his administration, and his political party with no guardrails or limits.

It’s not news that Trump, MAGA, and Republicans are using the power of the federal government for partisan political power. They have been willing to ignore the law. They have been willing to push the limits to reshape the law.

When serving in the Biden Administration and working with Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, I watched as we were all directed to follow the Hatch Act. I was in the room when Secretary Vilsack refused to be baited by reporters to violate the Hatch Act.

We did trainings and were told that if we willfully violated the Hatch Act, we would be charged. Ignorance would be no excuse.

This is not ignorance. This is a willful violation. This is a test.

To my fellow farmers and ranchers. This is what’s happening at USDA under President Trump. This is what’s happening while our president bails out the president of Argentina, allowing him to empower China to continue to not buy our soybeans.

To my friends in the media, please cover this story. It’s important.

We’ve known for months now, we are not living in a drill. We are living in the takeover of our federal government for the purpose of advancing a radical political agenda that is consolidating power and wealth among a few. The consequence of this is that the rest of us, all of us, are becoming victims of the federal government rather than the beneficiaries of “a government of the people, by the people, for the people.”

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