Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller arrives at Mar-a-Lago to meet with President-elect Donald Trump's transition team Friday. | AP Photo Cupcake defender interviews for Ag secretary job Sid Miller now says he's a fan of fresh produce.

Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller may be famous for granting cupcakes “amnesty” from school nutrition rules and calling Hillary Clinton a “c---” on Twitter, but, as he angles for a job in the Trump cabinet, he wants to talk about local vegetables.

The 61-year-old rodeo champion, who’s scheduled to meet with top Trump aides at the president-elect’s Mar-a-Largo resort Friday afternoon to discuss the agriculture secretary opening, is trying to shed his national profile as a defender of deep fryers at a time when even Republicans are embracing policies that sound like they’re straight from first lady Michelle Obama’s platform.


“We’re really working hard on our farm-to-school program,” he told POLITICO Thursday, just before taking off for Florida, where he’s scheduled to meet with White House c hief of s taff Reince Priebus and chief strategist Steve Bannon.

Miller’s chances of getting the job are unclear. Trump has been auditioning a parade of other candidates and is said to be interested in using the Agriculture slot to diversify his Cabinet with a woman or a Hispanic. But Miller’s campaign to soften his right-wing image by touting himself as a nutrition advocate is an indication of just how entrenched Obama’s push for healthy eating has become, though Miller disagrees with the first lady ’ s approach.

“ I think we have the same end goals, but we have different ideas about how to get there, ” he said.

In a lot of ways, Miller’s like Trump: He’s controversial and a fan of stagecraft. He burst into the national political consciousness days before the election with his profane tweet about Clinton, a move he later apologized for and blamed on a staffer. Operating from an Austin office decorated with taxidermy he bought with campaign funds, he’s doled out large bonuses to staff, compared Syrian refugees to rattlesnakes and clashed with members of his own party by raising fees.

Now, Miller — who once held a news conference in front of a cupcake truck to announce the desserts could be served in schools and allowed schools to bring back deep fryers — is touting his promotion of fresh, local produce and school gardens. He said he’s a fan of Obama ’ s vegetable garden on the South Lawn of the White House, too.

“ I like that. We’re doing the same thing, ” he said, noting that his department gives schools kits to start “ salsa gardens, ” which include tomatoes, cilantro and peppers.

Miller’s promotion of local food in Texas, however, has done nothing to mollify his critics, who say he has shamelessly played politics with children’s health as obesity continues to be one of the country’s most pressing public health problems.

The Lone Star State ranked 10 th in the nation for its childhood obesity rate in 2011. One in five children from ages 10 to 17 were considered obese, according to federal data.

Bettina Siegel, a prominent school nutrition advocate in Texas, sees Miller’s message on nutrition as nothing more than a stunt to help him in his public audition for agriculture secretary. She remembers Miller’s cupcake news conference, where he also issued a “full pardon” to pies, cookies and brownies.

“I think he now doesn’t want to be seen as a crazy extremist, but when it was politically expedient he was absolutely willing to play that card,” said Siegel, who notes that the cupcake exploit landed Miller on Fox News. “It was so calculated.”

It turns out the cupcakes didn’t actually need amnesty. In 2005, Gov . Rick Perry had signed a bill dubbed Lauren’s law, which gave Texas parents the right to bring treats to school for birthdays and other celebrations.

Deep fryers have also not swept back into in Texas, despite their reprieve by Miller — who says he ’ s an advocate of local control — in part because of federal nutrition rules championed by Obama.

“We don’t have a lot of schools opting to go back to deep fryers,” said Catherine Wright Steele, a director of the Texas department of agriculture’s food and nutrition division. She added: “We’re still following all of the federal regulations.”

Miller was one of the first to be mentioned more than a month ago as a candidate to run U .S . D epartment of A griculture. One of more than five dozen members of Trump’s agriculture advisory committee, he has been a constant champion of the president-elect. Last week he penned an op-ed that he sent out as a news release, declaring that Trump has “already Made America Great Again.”

To POLITICO, Miller emphasized his similarities to Trump.

“Donald Trump is about the ‘Art of the Deal’ and how we don’t win anymore . … I think I can really relate to that,” he said. “Everything he’s talked about , I’ve been doing that.”

Miller noted his numerous trips abroad to promote Texas products. The state’s pecans are doing particularly well in China, he said.

Miller sees the job in Trump’s terms — essentially running a large business.

“I look at this like I’m running a fortune 500 company,” Miller said, of his current post heading the Texas Agriculture Department, adding: “How do I please my stockholders, which is all the voters in Texas? That’s just how I approach it. It’s a common sense, business-style approach.”

Cupcakes included, Miller has attracted a lot of controversy for someone who’s been in statewide office just two years. He spent $33,000 of his campaign funds to outfit his Austin office with taxidermy, including “lots of horns, hooves, heads and hides,” the Dallas Morning News reported. And he doled out $400,000 in bonuses to his employees at the department during his first nine months at the helm, some without required employee evaluations, according to the Houston Chronicle.

And when Miller flew to Oklahoma for a cocktail of drugs and vitamins known as a “Jesus shot” because it purportedly cures pain for life, Texas Rangers investigated whether he used taxpayer money and campaign funds to pay for the trip. Prosecutors ultimately decided not to pursue a case.

Then there are Miller’s more recent social media controversies. In addition to his Tweets about Clinton and Syrian refugees, he’s been criticized for repeatedly sharing fake news.

But Miller has shown a penchant for political hardball, taking on his own party — including nearly half of the Texas House and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick — by hiking fees for a variety of licenses and services, a move he said was in response to the L egislature under funding the state’s agriculture department.

And some in the state credit him with clearing a backlog of organic certification inspections he inherited upon taking office, some of which were running more than two years behind.

The agriculture secretary position remains one of the last three Cabinet positions without a nominee, and the Trump transition team continues to bring in other candidates for vetting. That includes even Miller’s predecessor at the Texas Agriculture Department, Susan Combs, who is scheduled to meet with Trump on Friday after meeting recently with VP-elect Mike Pence. Combs, who has enjoyed the support of House Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway, has been an outspoken critic of Miller’s cupcake stunt.

Miller acknowledged that it would “make sense” for him to be passed over in favor of a candidate who brings diversity.

“They don’t have a Hispanic yet , and they could use another woman or two, but it kind of hurts my chances,” he said, with a chuckle. “But we’ll see. We’ve never had [an Agriculture] secretary from Texas.”

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