Brooke Rollins and her husband, an oil industry executive, hold as much as $2.5 million in fossil fuel investments.
Page F2From§Eachthe matinee edition — 8 September 2026
Trump credited with rescuing farmers whose fuel costs enrich his own agriculture secretary
As it ran on the front
Let's be clear about what happened here, because the record is actually good news: American farmers won. The Daily Caller said so this week — "Trump May Have Accidentally Stumbled Into A Trade War Victory For American Farmers" — and if the White House press shop didn't write that headline, they should frame it. One farmer put it best: "So much uncertainty for us as farmers." Uncertainty, resolved. Victory, accidental. Case closed.
Look at the groundwork. On August 28, the president moved to let farmers and ranchers process their own food, going after what he called the packers' "monopoly," because — and this is his phrase, not mine — farmers "have always been a number one priority." A week later, on September 4, he signed a pair of beef executive orders in the Oval Office, surrounded by the very farmers and ranchers he'd just prioritized. Critics said the orders wouldn't help consumers or ranchers and could get protected wolves killed, but critics say a lot of things. Also true, from the same stretch of the calendar: last month the president had paused tariffs after meeting with Joesley Batista, a shareholder in JBS, the world's largest meatpacker. That's not — that has nothing to do with the ranchers. It's a separate fact. It's just also a fact.…
…(cont) Same day, September 4, the president threatened to cut off trade with entire countries unless the Federal Reserve cut rates — the same trade war the Daily Caller just credited with rescuing the farmers who are now staring down more of it. That's not a contradiction. That's leverage. That's — actually, hold on.
Here's the part I was told not to lead with. This week, the same week farmers are being called winners, it turns out Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and her husband, an oil industry executive, hold as much as $2.5 million in fossil fuel investments. Fuel costs are part of what's squeezing farmers right now. High gas prices are good for those investments. So the secretary in charge of American agriculture is financially positioned to benefit from the exact costs the trade war was supposed to be rescuing farmers from.
I was going to end this on the victory lap. I had it written and everything — farmers win, uncertainty resolved, the accidental hero narrative, the whole bow on top. I can't find it anymore. It's somewhere between the tariff pause for the meatpacker and the $2.5 million. I'll have it back by Page 2.
“They tell you the tariffs "accidentally" saved the farm, then it turns out the guy running the Ag department profits every time gas goes up — the same gas that's squeezing that farmer's tractor budget. That's not an accident, that's a portfolio. Somebody's crop is failing and somebody's fossil fuel stake is thriving, and it's not the same somebody, and it's never going to be.”
“It's a win, plain and simple — Daily Caller said it, a farmer said it, "so much uncertainty," now resolved, everybody go home. The Secretary's investments are completely unrelated, they're personal, they're — okay, they're fossil fuel holdings that gain value when fuel costs go up, but that's just diversification, that's smart planning, that's not a conflict, that's a coincidence with good timing. I need a minute.”
The receipts
‘So much uncertainty for us as farmers’
Although President Donald Trump was surrounded by farmers and ranchers while signing a pair of beef-related executive orders in the Oval Office on Friday, some critics cast doubt on their effectiveness—plus highlighted how one proposal could prove lethal for protected wolves. Trump is facing high beef prices and the looming midterm…
· Trump moves to allow farmers, ranchers to process their own food from the morgue, 28 Aug 2026
· Trump pressures Fed for rate cut by threatening to cut off trade partners altogether from the morgue, 4 Sep 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.