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Brooke Rollins

๐Ÿ‘ค Speaker
See mentions of this person in podcasts
472 total appearances

Appearances Over Time

Podcast Appearances

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Brooke Rollins, Secretary of Agriculture | All-In DC

if there were a significant policy apparatus or apparatuses, I guess, that were strategic and intentional and that didn't have clients that weren't paid to advocate for certain things, we only advocated for what was right, that it could change everything in Texas, everything. I'd just been the policy director. I had no one telling me what the right thing to do was.

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Brooke Rollins, Secretary of Agriculture | All-In DC

if there were a significant policy apparatus or apparatuses, I guess, that were strategic and intentional and that didn't have clients that weren't paid to advocate for certain things, we only advocated for what was right, that it could change everything in Texas, everything. I'd just been the policy director. I had no one telling me what the right thing to do was.

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Brooke Rollins, Secretary of Agriculture | All-In DC

I just had the industry and lobby in my ear. And so I thought, well, yeah, let me go do this Texas public policy thing for a year or two, and that'll be fun. And then I'll really step away once my kids start coming, hopefully. And I looked up 15 years later with four kids, Luke, Jake, Anna, and Lily. I was doing the flexible work before it was a thing. My board at TPPF was wonderful.

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Brooke Rollins, Secretary of Agriculture | All-In DC

I just had the industry and lobby in my ear. And so I thought, well, yeah, let me go do this Texas public policy thing for a year or two, and that'll be fun. And then I'll really step away once my kids start coming, hopefully. And I looked up 15 years later with four kids, Luke, Jake, Anna, and Lily. I was doing the flexible work before it was a thing. My board at TPPF was wonderful.

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Brooke Rollins, Secretary of Agriculture | All-In DC

Went from two employees to about 120. Became, I believe, the most effective public policy organization in the country. Moved Texas because I had been in the sausage making. So I knew Wasn't, again, wasn't an academic, which at the time most think tanks were run by. But I understood innately how to stop bad things and how to move good things. And that was really the bottom line.

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Brooke Rollins, Secretary of Agriculture | All-In DC

Went from two employees to about 120. Became, I believe, the most effective public policy organization in the country. Moved Texas because I had been in the sausage making. So I knew Wasn't, again, wasn't an academic, which at the time most think tanks were run by. But I understood innately how to stop bad things and how to move good things. And that was really the bottom line.

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Brooke Rollins, Secretary of Agriculture | All-In DC

And how to hire really, really good people. So I got a call from Jared Kushner, whom I had never met. I had been on the president candidate Donald Trump's economic team. Got a call when he was running against Hillary Clinton. Would you help us just build out our economic tax plan, deregulation plan, et cetera? And I said, of course, but I run a nonpartisan think tank.

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Brooke Rollins, Secretary of Agriculture | All-In DC

And how to hire really, really good people. So I got a call from Jared Kushner, whom I had never met. I had been on the president candidate Donald Trump's economic team. Got a call when he was running against Hillary Clinton. Would you help us just build out our economic tax plan, deregulation plan, et cetera? And I said, of course, but I run a nonpartisan think tank.

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Brooke Rollins, Secretary of Agriculture | All-In DC

And I'm always happy to help because obviously I think we thought Donald Trump was going to be more conservative than Hillary, but no one really knew, right? He'd been a Democrat very early, not very long ago.

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Brooke Rollins, Secretary of Agriculture | All-In DC

And I'm always happy to help because obviously I think we thought Donald Trump was going to be more conservative than Hillary, but no one really knew, right? He'd been a Democrat very early, not very long ago.

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Brooke Rollins, Secretary of Agriculture | All-In DC

And I said, but yes, if anyone calls and helps, I want them to understand the Texas model, what we did in cutting taxes and deregulating and the job growth that happened and how it helped poor people the most, going back to my original idea of going to seminary. And so he won. I was on that economic team. I was not interested in coming to D.C. or the White House. I told the team that.

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Brooke Rollins, Secretary of Agriculture | All-In DC

And I said, but yes, if anyone calls and helps, I want them to understand the Texas model, what we did in cutting taxes and deregulating and the job growth that happened and how it helped poor people the most, going back to my original idea of going to seminary. And so he won. I was on that economic team. I was not interested in coming to D.C. or the White House. I told the team that.

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Brooke Rollins, Secretary of Agriculture | All-In DC

They said, what would you like to do? You were on the team when a lot of people weren't. And I said, no, no, no, I'm going to stay in Texas and help. Then I got a call from my now very good friend, but then at the time didn't know him, Jared Kushner, who said, whatever you're doing, this is about six months into term, year one of term one. What is that thing y'all are doing in Texas?

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Brooke Rollins, Secretary of Agriculture | All-In DC

They said, what would you like to do? You were on the team when a lot of people weren't. And I said, no, no, no, I'm going to stay in Texas and help. Then I got a call from my now very good friend, but then at the time didn't know him, Jared Kushner, who said, whatever you're doing, this is about six months into term, year one of term one. What is that thing y'all are doing in Texas?

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Brooke Rollins, Secretary of Agriculture | All-In DC

You know, criminal justice reform, deregulation, tax cuts. I mean, whatever, all of the great things you've done, that's sort of, can you come just talk to me about how you did it? And so I flew up to D.C. and flew up again and flew up again. And he started saying, we really need you in the White House. We want you to build something very similar to what you built in Texas, a

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Brooke Rollins, Secretary of Agriculture | All-In DC

You know, criminal justice reform, deregulation, tax cuts. I mean, whatever, all of the great things you've done, that's sort of, can you come just talk to me about how you did it? And so I flew up to D.C. and flew up again and flew up again. And he started saying, we really need you in the White House. We want you to build something very similar to what you built in Texas, a

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Brooke Rollins, Secretary of Agriculture | All-In DC

this relentless, super strategic, very intentional policy apparatus that could move things. And I said no. And then I said no again. And then I said no again. And then my family and I finally said yes. And so that's how I ended up in the last white house.

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Brooke Rollins, Secretary of Agriculture | All-In DC

this relentless, super strategic, very intentional policy apparatus that could move things. And I said no. And then I said no again. And then I said no again. And then my family and I finally said yes. And so that's how I ended up in the last white house.

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Brooke Rollins, Secretary of Agriculture | All-In DC

Well, it's a much bigger and more interesting story than that, I think. So the final year of term one, I took it upon myself. I sort of anointed myself as the person that would ensure that when President Trump won the second term on November 3rd of 2020, that we would be ready, unlike we were not in the first term.

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Brooke Rollins, Secretary of Agriculture | All-In DC

Well, it's a much bigger and more interesting story than that, I think. So the final year of term one, I took it upon myself. I sort of anointed myself as the person that would ensure that when President Trump won the second term on November 3rd of 2020, that we would be ready, unlike we were not in the first term.