Donald Trump's agriculture team is loaded with heavy Republican hitters. | Getty Trump assembles A-team on ag policy

Donald Trump on Tuesday unveiled a list of agricultural advisers brimming with Republican heavy hitters, including Govs. Sam Brownback and Terry Branstad and several top farm-state lawmakers in a move that seemed aimed at quelling criticisms he is relying on a mostly third-string team.

The New York City real estate mogul’s rural and agriculture advisory committee — comprising 65 people — is a Who’s Who of farm policy, with five members of Congress, including the chairmen of the House and Senate agriculture committees, 10 current and former farm-state governors and two former GOP presidential nomination rivals, former Govs. Rick Perry and Jim Gilmore.


It’s an astoundingly mainstream roster for a candidate who seized the nomination on a wave of anti-establishment fury, splintering the party along the way.

“They pretty much cover what I would consider to be the sweep of agriculture and rural issues we’re all working on,” said Dale Moore, executive director of public policy for the American Farm Bureau, the agriculture industry’s largest lobbying group, which does not endorse candidates. “There’s a lot of horse power here that can provide good, solid advice and counsel.”

The list includes some major GOP donors, including Charles Herbster, a Nebraska cattle rancher who’s serving as the council’s chair, and Bruce Rastetter, a wealthy agribusiness leader in Iowa. But it also lists most of the Republican farm policy establishment, including Pat Roberts of Kansas, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Mike Conaway of Texas, chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, Virginia Rep. Bob Goodlatte, who used to lead the House panel, as well as nearly a dozen state agriculture commissioners.

The advisory committee — which is six times larger than Mitt Romney’s 2012 panel — also includes a number of distinctly Trumpian characters, from Red Steagall, Texas’ official cowboy poet, to Sid Miller, the Texas agriculture commissioner who made national headlines for trying to bring deep fryers and sugary drinks back to schools.

While the farmers and agribusiness executives on the list all have given to political campaigns in the past — Rastetter and Herbster have donated hundreds of thousands each in the last few election cycles — none had contributed to Trump’s official campaign as of the end of June, according to the most recent filings available from the Federal Election Commission. Herbster reportedly told agriculture leaders at the Republican National Convention that he gave Trump a “significant donation,” when the two met at Trump Tower in May.

The fact that so many of Trump’s advisers are establishment lawmakers drew criticism from Hillary Clinton supporters.

“For a guy who doesn’t like politicians, he is sure surrounding himself with them,” said Trevor Dean, an organizer with Rural for Hillary, an outside group that’s drumming up support for Clinton in rural communities. Dean, who has a volunteer policy role with the Clinton campaign, was quick to point out that his candidate has released a detailed policy platform on rural issues and Trump has not.

“An advisory committee is all well and good, but where’s your plan?” Dean asked.

What role the rural council will play in the Trump campaign or transition planning remains unclear. The group held its first meeting Tuesday morning after nearly a month of building a list of participants and hasn’t released a policy platform. Some members said their mission still wasn’t entirely clear.

“We haven’t had time to gather forces yet,” said Steagall, who also hosts rural radio and TV shows.

Mike Green, a Michigan state senator who phoned into the meeting, said the discussion focused on beating back government regulation and agreeing on a clear agenda for the council.

“They said the largest part of this is having good people from different places giving Donald a cross section of the issues,” Green said.

Participants on the call also talked about infrastructure and trade issues, in addition to the frustration with federal regulatory overreach, said Ted McKinney, director of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture and the former head of global corporate affairs for Elanco Animal Health.

“There was a lot of input on policy and then the promise was, ‘We will be back to you with where we take this,’” McKinney said.

Herbster, who leads the effort, has said the council will focus on fundraising and mobilizing rural voters, though policy will play a part as well. Herbster was largely unknown in agriculture circles before his appointment was announced at the Republican National Convention. He has described meeting Trump a decade ago at Mar-a-Lago, the real estate magnate’s mansion in Florida.

For Tom Nassif, president and CEO of Western Growers, the route to a seat on Trump’s agriculture committee began on the Manhattan billionaire’s private plane in late May. After a rally in Fresno, Calif., where Trump spoke about water shortages — a top issue for farmers facing a devastating drought — the candidate offered Nassif a ride to San Diego.

Nassif said he spent 15 to 20 minutes talking with Trump about the need to overhaul immigration laws in a way that protects farm workers already in the U.S., while ensuring employers can reliably hire new workers, since U.S. agribusinesses face major labor shortages. Nassif also argued that immigrants are not taking agricultural jobs from Americans because Americans don’t want them.

Trump said he understood the complexity of the issue, and asked Nassif to sit down with Stephen Miller, one of his policy advisers. After briefing Miller on Western Growers’ position on immigration reform, Nassif said he agreed to advise the campaign as a private individual, not as a representative of Western Growers.

“From my perspective, the reason to be on the advisory committee is so I can give advice and influence policy,” Nassif said, adding that he hopes that’s Trump’s intention for the council.

Nassif, like most agriculture leaders, is a strong supporter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which puts him at odds with the Republican nominee on one of the biggest issues in play this election cycle. Nasiff said he briefed Trump on the trade deal’s benefits for agriculture producers, who would gain expanded access to markets in Japan, Vietnam and Malaysia, among others.

While Trump made no promises, Nassif said his selection of agricultural advisers with positions not entirely in sync with his own indicates Trump has a serious interest in the well being of U.S. agriculture.

“He went to great lengths to find the right people to be his advisers,” Nassif said.

In going with a mainstream lineup, Trump is also taking advice from industry leaders whose views on immigration run counter to his own plan to build a wall along the southern border with Mexico and deport 11 million undocumented immigrants. Those include Nassif, Mike McCloskey, the head of the National Milk Producers Federation immigration task force, and Charles Connor, the president and CEO of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, who argues for allowing more immigrants to stay in the U.S. to fill a shortage of farm workers.