Sid Miller isn’t one to mince words. The three-term Texas agriculture commissioner contends he hasn’t discussed being secretary of agriculture with Donald Trump. However, if the former president asked him to consider it, he has a pretty good idea how he’d answer.

“If that happens, we’ll talk about that. We’ll see what shapes up,” Miller says. “I would tell you that, if the president asks you to do something, I’m not going to tell him no.”

Miller insists his only focus now is helping Trump win the election. He’s currently working with the former president’s transition team. Though he says he hasn’t discussed cabinet level roles, Miller is giving Trump recommendations for other USDA positions that will require Senate approval.

Whichever candidate wins the presidential election will nominate at least 13 USDA positions in addition to secretary of agriculture. They include the deputy secretary of agriculture, and multiple undersecretary roles overseeing things like food safety, rural development and agriculture trade.

Bullish on Trump

The swashbuckling politician with a ten-gallon hat has been Texas ag commissioner for almost a decade. Prior to that, he served more than a dozen years in the Texas House of Representatives. Miller has consistently been one of Trump’s strongest supporters. In July he was mere feet away when the former president dodged an assassin’s bullet in Butler, Pa.

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According to him, Trump’s agriculture record speaks for itself.

“We went through a tariff war. We won that war and had the best commodity prices we’ve ever had,” Miller says. “I mean we made really good money under Trump’s leadership.”

While many economists say high tariffs on foreign goods could negatively impact farmers and increase inflation, Miller isn’t buying it. According to him, tariff wars have been going on for 40 or 50 years. He credits Trump for being the president to “fight back.”

The Texas ag commissioner also praises Trump for cutting regulations and blames Biden for the current record on agriculture trade deficit.

Miller says he also has no issues with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. playing a role in a second Trump administration. Kennedy recently made headlines for saying he would push for major changes inside USDA as part of his “Make America Healthy Again” plan. According to Miller, that’s something all Americans should be willing to embrace.

“There’s a lot of things Bobby Kennedy, Trump and myself agree on, and those are the things we’re going to work together on,” Miller says. “The other stuff we can’t agree on, it’s a non-issue. It’s a non-starter. We’re not going there.”

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State of the farm economy

Miller doesn’t hold out much hope for a farm bill being passed this year. That means farmers don’t have the predictability they need to make fully informed decisions. It’s putting them in something of a holding pattern as they consider potential plans or improvement for their operations.

He likes some of what he’s seen in the House Republican proposal, though he believes the bill has a long way to go before it will make it to the next president’s desk.

As for issues affecting farmers in his state, Miller recently made headlines for saying Texas is running out of water. He says that’s a major factor in the state losing around a farm per week.

Water scarcity is a daunting challenge for many states. According to Miller, it doesn’t necessarily take massive projects to fix. Instead, he says infrastructure improvements, and investments in smaller things like irrigation and drainage, better rainfall capture, and not using fresh water for fracking could all significantly improve the state’s water security.

“You take about eight or ten little things, and it adds up to big things,” Miller says.

According to Miller, the cattle industry remains strong in the Lone Star State. He says it’s the only sector actually making money. Even the feed lots are still profitable.

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The problem he says is that many farmers are using those profits to prop up everything else on the farm, since nearly all commodities are expected to lose money this year. Miller blames that on high input costs for things like fertilizer, fuel and electricity.

He accuses the Biden administration of doing a “very poor job” of marketing American agricultural goods, leading to this year’s record trade deficit. Miller says it’s time to “stop the hemorrhaging” and “open our markets back up.”

As for Election Day, Miller says he might spend the evening in Mar-a-Lago. More than likely, he will stay home in Stephenville, Texas. After all, it will be his wife’s birthday. Either way, he expects the evening to include a victory party.