During a campaign stop last week, former President Donald Trump highlighted the ongoing fight against illegal immigration and the crime that comes along with an open border.
He also networked and name-checked Texas politicians in the crowd, some of whom may be tapped to join his administration should he win the election next Tuesday.
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, Attorney General Ken Paxton, and Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham attended the Trump event. Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller was also present.
Trump praised Miller, who is reportedly on the shortlist to become the Secretary of Agriculture in a hypothetical second Trump administration. Miller, in the middle of his third term as Agriculture Commissioner of Texas, previously served in the Texas House of Representatives.
In September, Miller endorsed the newly minted Make America Healthy Again movement that emerged when Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wound down his campaign and endorsed Trump.
Part of the MAHA movement is focused intently on the healthcare industry, specifically vaccinations that have come under intense scrutiny after being forced on millions of Americans during COVID-19.
The other element, which would be under the purview of the Secretary of Agriculture, is healthy food.
As Miller pointed out in his editorial backing MAHA, Texas is one of the largest agricultural states in the U.S. Additionally, the U.S. will need to lead the world in the coming decades on the issue of farming and ranching.
Texas has a history of being a farm league from which presidents, specifically Trump, draw to fill cabinet positions.
In his previous administration, Trump tapped former Gov. Rick Perry to serve as the Energy Secretary and Texas Public Policy Foundation alumna Brooke Rollins as director of the Office of American Innovation.
Miller, a bonafide cowboy, has repeatedly been praised by Trump for backing his run early during the 2016 campaign. Reporting from the time suggests that Miller was considered for a position in the first administration, but that didn’t materialize.
During his recently aired interview with Joe Rogan, Trump lamented the approach he took toward appointments in his first term, saying “bad people” served under him, such as neo-cons and disloyal people.
