Tangle - PREVIEW: The Friday Edition - 10 cabinet secretaries you haven't heard of.

Episode Date: October 3, 2025

The first eight months of the second Trump administration have been headlined by several prominent cabinet members: Marco Rubio, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Pete Hegseth, Kristi Noem, Scott Bessent and Pam Bondi, among others. These agency leaders have undertaken wide-ranging initiatives to carry out the president’s agenda, drawing regular coverage and analysis of their actions. But other department heads have also been shaping policies, implementing programs, and making consequential decisions — often without the same degree of media attention.Today, we're going to devote a two-part edition to ten Trump administration leaders whose work does not always grab headlines but touches on key issues like agriculture, housing policy, labor, international aid, the environment, and more. In Tangle fashion, we’ll give an overview of their core initiatives, what supporters and critics are saying, and the issues we think will define the remainder of their time in office.Ad-free podcasts are here! To unlock this episode and much more follow the link below:Many listeners have been asking for an ad-free version of this podcast that they could subscribe to — and we finally launched it. You can go to ReadTangle.com to sign up!You can subscribe to Tangle by clicking here or drop something in our tip jar by clicking here. Our Executive Editor and Founder is Isaac Saul. Our Executive Producer is Jon Lall.This podcast was written by: Will Kaback, Ari Weitzman, Lindsey Knuth, Audrey Moorehead, Russell Nystrom and edited and engineered by Dewey Thomas. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75 and Jon Lall.Our newsletter is edited by Managing Editor Ari Weitzman, Senior Editor Will Kaback, Lindsey Knuth, Kendall White, Bailey Saul, and Audrey Moorehead. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Too many students are packed into overcrowded classrooms in Ontario schools, and it's hurting their ability to learn. But instead of helping our kids, the Ford government is playing politics, taking over school boards and silencing local voices. It shouldn't be this way. Tell the Ford government to get serious about tackling overcrowded classrooms because smaller classes would make a big difference for our kids. Go to Building Better Schools.ca.

A message from the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario. Hi, everyone, and welcome to the Tangle Friday edition. I'm senior editor Will Kayback, and today we're going to be covering the cabinet secretaries you haven't heard about. The first eight months of the second Trump administration have been headlined by several prominent cabinet members, Marco Rubio, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Tulsi Gabbard, Christy Noem, Scott Bessent, and Pam Bondi, among others. These leaders have undertaken wide-ranging initiatives to carry out the president's agenda, drawing regular coverage and analysis of their

actions. But a quieter group of department heads has also been shaping policies, implementing programs, and making consequential decisions, often without the same degree of media attention. So today, we're going to pull back the curtain on 10 Trump administration leaders whose work does not always grab the headlines, but touches on key issues like agriculture, housing policy, the labor market, international aid, the environment, and more. In true tangle fashion, we'll give an overview of their core initiatives so far, what their supporters and critics are saying, and the issues that will define the remainder of their time in office. First up, we have Brooke Rawlins, Secretary of Agriculture.

Brooke Rawlins was the founding president and CEO of the America First Policy Institute, a conservative think tank launched in 2021 to boost Trump's policies. AFPI employed many officials from Trump's first presidency, and several former AFPI employees now hold senior positions in the current administration. Before founding AFPI, Rollins held multiple roles in the first Trump administration, including director of the domestic policy council. She has also served as former Texas Governor Rick Perry's policy director and ran the Texas Public Policy Foundation, another conservative think tank.

The Senate confirmed Rollins as Agriculture Secretary in a 72 to 28 vote. Since Rawlins' first days in office, she has linked the Department of Agriculture with national security. Along with the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, and Justice, the USDA released a Farm Security as National Security Action Plan, which outlines seven critical areas for the USDA to address. One of these areas was ownership of American farmland by adversarial governments. Rollins signed a memorandum of understanding with the Treasury Department to give USDA more involvement on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, completing a partnership

kicked off by Congress last year. Additionally, Rollins released a map of foreign farmland purchases and a web portal for individuals to report instances of foreign governments influencing American politicians with respect to the sale of American farmland. Rollins also ordered a USDA reorganization, cutting salaries, moving jobs out of Washington, D.C, and ending USDA diversity, equity, and inclusion programs on her first day in office. She has overseen the distribution of billions of dollars to farmers,

and Rollins announced that USDA and DOJ antitrust attorneys would work together to combat rising input prices for farmers. She has also taken action to protect the U.S. from New World Screwworm. Supporters say her experience as an executive of two large public policy organizations, and lifelong involvement in farming will make her an effective agriculture secretary. Since our confirmation, some industry leaders have conditionally endorsed

the memoranda of understanding between DOJ and USDA, calling on leaders to make sure it is properly applied. Others have commended her efforts to prevent New World Screw Worm from infecting American cattle. Detractors have criticized Rollins' decision to substantially reorganize

and cut programs at USDA without forewarning or congressional oversight. Many worry that moving jobs out of D.C. will lead to additional resignations at a department that 18,000 employees have left since January. Others have criticized her comments surrounding the partnerships for Climate Smart Commodities Initiative, which focused on growing crops using practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Rollins and many other politicians have warned recently that farmers are in an economically perilous position. At the same time, photos of Treasury Secretary Scott Besson's phone showed a message seemingly sent by Rollins, complaining that Argentina sold a bunch of soybeans to China at a time when we would normally be selling to China. Rollins continued, soy prices are dropping further because of it. This gives China more leverage on us.

Soybeans are the largest agricultural export of the United States, but retaliatory tariffs have made South American grown beans more competitive. On Tuesday, in her appearance on Fox businesses making money with Charles Payne, Rollins said that President Trump has committed to a bailout for farmers and will make an announcement on it likely next week. Rollins will probably work with Senate Majority Leader John Thune to try to shepherd a farm bailout bill through Congress. Next up is Energy Secretary Chris Wright.

Chris Wright is an energy entrepreneur, best known for founding hydraulic fracture or fracking mapping company, Pinnacle Technologies, and serving as its CEO from 1992 to 2006. Wright led several other shale energy retraction companies, most recently Liberty Energy, and has participated in efforts to tap shale for geothermal energy and develop small modular nuclear reactors. Wright is a scientist who studied at MIT and Caltech, and he was confirmed by the Senate in a 59-38 vote in February. Wright has broadly shifted the Department of Energy's focus towards energy sources and infrastructure,

but away from managing the environmental effects of converting those sources into energy. In his opening remarks to DOE staff, Wright articulated his belief that the rising demand for energy fueled by AI necessitated both new innovations and a commitment to U.S. fossil fuels, particularly natural gas. As a self-proclaimed climate realist, Wright has also expressed skepticism that intermittent

renewable energy sources, such as solar, wind, and hydroelectricity can replace fossil fuels. One of Wright's first secretarial orders authorized an increase in the strategic petroleum reserve, resumed consideration of trading partners for exporting liquid natural gas, and encouraged modernization in the efficiency and security of the U.S. power grids. Relatedly, Wright has undertaken efforts to streamline regulations at U.S. national laboratories and to stockpile uranium reserves, remarking that a nuclear weapons arsenal should go hand-in-hand with nuclear energy and not be used as a deterrent. Wright also sees investing in critical minerals, efficient manufacturing, and the AI supply chain

as part of his departments from it. Conversely, Wright does not see responding to or managing climate change as a priority for the DOE. As part of an undertaking to reduce waste, Wright has terminated roughly $3.7 billion of investments into clean energy technology and carbon sequestration. Wright announced to the UN last week that he would be canceling $13 billion in investments in renewable energies in electric cars, which he said do not lead towards decarbonization. And perhaps the largest headline the DOE has garnered under his leadership, the Office of Energy Efficiency, and Renewable Energy added climate change, green, and decarbonization

to its growing list of words to avoid. Wright's supporters say that his attitude towards fossil fuels and dual background in science and business make him an ideal secretary of energy. Others applaud Wright's approach towards fossil fuels, calling his opinions realistic and saying that the government benefits from his opposition to the crisis mindset of the climate change industry. Some also dispute his label as a climate denier, instead pointing out his investments in nuclear and geothermal energy. Opponents label Wright's philosophy a kind of new denial of climate change, saying his refusal to admit the existential nature of the climate threat makes him

a favorite of the fossil fuel industry. Others criticized the research he commissioned into climate change, saying the authors were cherry-picked, and its results did not convincingly support Wright's goal to downplay the crisis. The European Union's climate commissioner, Vipke Hoekstra, said the DOE underwrite was doing the opposite of what Europe is doing, and referred to Wright's policies as concerning and problematic. Right has already undertaken steps to shift the DOE's focus to energy sources, but the policies he will put forward to modernize energy infrastructure are still unknown. In a recent development, the DOE is now taking proposals for developing data centers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The DOE underwrite will likely continue to invest in natural gas, oil, nuclear

energy, and coal, while divesting from carbon sequestration and green energy. Following executive orders signed by President Trump, Wright announced the reactor pilot program to fast-track nuclear energy development, with the goal of putting three advanced reactors into production by we'll be right back after this quick break too many students are packed into overcrowded classrooms in Ontario schools and it's hurting their ability to learn but instead of helping our kids the Ford government is playing politics taking over school boards and silencing local voices it shouldn't be this way tell the Ford government to Get serious about tackling overcrowded classrooms because smaller classes would make a big difference for our kids.

Go to Building Better Schools.ca.a. A message from the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario. Now on to Doug Bergam, the Secretary of the Interior. Bergam is the former governor of North Dakota, serving in that role from 2016 to 2025. Before politics, he had a notable career as a businessman, assuming leadership of a North Dakota-based accounting software company and taking it public before selling it to Microsoft. Bergam ran for the Republican nomination for president in the 2024 election, but suspended his campaign in December 2023. He later endorsed President Trump and was considered a shortless candidate to be

Trump's running mate. The Senate confirmed Bergham as Interior Secretary in a 79 to 18 vote in January. Now, here's what Bergam's done. On his first day in office, Bergam signed six Secretary's orders, which are formal directives outlining department priorities, broadly focused on increasing energy production and reducing energy costs. Order 3417 directed the department to use emergency legal authorities to accelerate domestic energy and critical mineral production, permitting, and infrastructure projects, while Order 3420 moved to reopen parts of the Arctic and other regions for expedited oil and gas leasing on the outer continental shelf. In April, he published plans for emergency permitting procedures that would cut permit processing timelines for energy-related projects on federal lands to no more than 28 days. Energy sources like crude oil, natural gas, coal, and others were included on the list of qualifying projects, though wind and solar were not.

Bergam has argued that the United States has over-incentivized renewable energy production, claiming that these energy sources cannot keep up with rising energy demands. Separately, the department has taken steps to streamline the mining and processing of critical minerals, which Bergam said will move the U.S. away from its reliance on China for these materials. Finally, the Interior Secretary has outlined plans to allow new oil and gas leases on federal land in Alaska, overturning protections put in place by the Biden administration. In June, Bergam visited Alaska and officially announced that the Trump administration will lift environmental protections on approximately half of the National Petroleum Reserve

on Alaska's North Slope. Furthermore, the Department of the Interior is working to transfer federal land to the state to support construction of a pipeline to transport liquefied natural gas for export and our road to support a planned copper and zinc mine in northern Alaska. Now here's what some of Bergam's supporters and critics are saying. Supporters have praised Bergam's deregulatory moves to boost production of fuel sources like coal, arguing that these measures will help reduce energy costs. Others have endorsed Bergam's efforts to increase recovery of critical minerals to help the United States break free from its reliance on China for these materials.

Several major agricultural and energy groups have also expressed support for Bergam. The National Cattleman's Beef Association and Public Lands Council noted his, quote, proven record of supporting rural communities and promoting a balanced approach to energy development and conservation, while the American Petroleum Institute praised his, quote, pro-American energy approach to federal leasing, end quote. Now, critics have questioned Bergam's decision to exclude renewable energy sources like wind from his energy agenda, noting the discrepancy between the all-of-the-above approach he endorsed during his confirmation process and his actions now that he's in office. They suggest Bergam's hostile posture towards wind is solely to placate President Trump and is depriving the U.S. of a key energy source. Others, like the

Center for Western Priorities, have argued that his secretary's orders will, quote, upend public land management and cause irreparable harm to the West's landscapes, wildlife habitats, climate, and communities, end quote, highlighting the risk of moves like scaling back habitat protections and eliminating resource management plans. What's next for Bergam? Well, his ongoing efforts to reshape U.S. energy and land policy will be a major story to watch in the months ahead, including how he manages resource development in Alaska and seeks to bolster critical mineral supply chains. Furthermore, keep an eye on his deregulatory moves. On Monday, the Interior Department announced it would open 13.1 million acres of federal land for coal mining and reduced companies' royalty rates to extract coal.

Bergam highlighted rising global coal demand, particularly in China, arguing it was essential for the U.S. to keep pace in production. The new policy suggests that the department will continue to emphasize fossil fuel production as part of its energy agenda. Next up is Doug Collins, Secretary of Veterans Affairs. Doug Collins is a former pastor and lawyer from Georgia. He served in the Georgia State House of Representatives from 2007 to 2013, and in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2013 to 2021. Collins also served as a U.S. Navy Reserve chaplain in the 1980s, then rejoined the military

as an Air Force Reserve chaplain after the 9-11 terrorist attacks. completing a tour in Iraq from 2008 to 2009. Collins remains an active chaplain and a colonel in the Air Force Reserve. He was confirmed by the Senate to his position with a vote of 77 to 23. Collins has focused much of his early tenure on reducing waste in the Department of Veterans Affairs and cutting back on DEI programs. The department claims that the elimination of DEI programs reallocated $14 million to veterans' health care programs.

It also revised its flag policy to allow only the U.S. and prisoner of war, or missing in action flags to be flown at VA locations. Various offices have also reduced costs by cutting personnel and contracts, and the VA department as a whole expects to reduce its workforce by nearly 30,000 people by the end of fiscal year 2025. Collins has also promised to protect and improve health care for veterans. In February, the VA announced that it had discovered and redirected an additional $98 million to veterans' health initiatives.

Collins has focused on expanding community care access, making it easier for veterans to seek health care outside of VA facilities using their VA coverage. The VA also expanded its status query and response exchange system, a digital tool originally designed to reduce veteran homelessness to offer support and suicide prevention as well. Veterans organizations like the Wounded Warrior Project expressed their support for Collins' nomination and confirmation in January, citing his military experience. Additionally, when supporting Collins' nomination,

Luke's wing CEO cited Collins' support of expanding community care for veterans as signaling his commitment to improving health care. Additionally, when supporting Collins' nomination, the CEO of Luke's Wings cited Collins' support of expanding community care for veterans as signaling his commitment to improving health care. The Veterans' Organization Mission Roll Call has since supported Collins' cuts to the department, arguing that his restructuring might improve conditions for veterans overall. Additionally, the veterans of foreign wars praised Collins' willingness to hear their concerns and adjust plans to reduce staff in the VA department. However, some critics, including VA doctors, have expressed dismay about funding cuts to the

department, worrying that the cuts may have undue impacts on health care for veterans. Other opponents argue that the private sector cannot address all of veterans' needs adequately, and emphasizing community care will close VA clinics that are better suited to veterans' unique needs. Meanwhile, Democratic politicians have also criticized the push for increased community care access for the same reasons, arguing that over-emphasizing the private sector abdicates the VA's responsibility to coordinate care. Collins will likely continuous focus on slimming down the department while prioritizing veterans' health benefits. This week, the VA has implemented baseline staffing caps in each of its departments based on Secretary Collins' recommendations,

which will likely be enforced shortly. Collins has also been attending and speaking at various veterans' events to promote some of his priorities like suicide prevention. Additionally, Collins requested a 10% budget increase in fiscal year 2026 to fund more VA benefits programs. Notably, the budget request included a 50% increase in discretionary funding for community care, but a 17% decrease in discretionary funding for VA provided. Too many students are packed into overcrowded classrooms in Ontario schools, and it's hurting their ability to learn. But instead of helping our kids, the Ford government is playing politics, taking over school boards

and silencing local voices. It shouldn't be this way. Tell the Ford government to get serious about tackling overcrowded classrooms because smaller classes would make a big difference for our kids. Go to building better schools.ca. A message from the Elementary Teachers

Federation of Ontario. Medical care. We'll be right back after this quick break. Next, Kelly Loeffler, administrator of the small business administration. Loeffler is a former U.S. Senator, representing Georgia from 2020 to 2021 after she was appointed to fill a vacant seat. She ran to remain in the seat in Georgia's 2021 special election, but lost to Democratic

candidate Raphael Warnock. Before politics, she was a finance executive and venture capitalist, serving in executive roles at several major companies. The Senate confirmed her as administrator of the small business administration, the SBA, in February in a 52 to 46 vote. Loeffler's tenure has centered on reorganizing the agency, implementing regulatory reform and boosting U.S. manufacturing. Her day-one priorities called for an agency-wide financial audit, and she has initiated large workforce cuts in agency restructuring, including relocating regional offices and absorbing the federal student aid office. As part of the restructuring, the SBA has cut

40% of its workforce. A centerpiece of her agenda is the Made in America Manufacturing Initiative announced in March, which reorients the SBA's Office of International Trade into an office of manufacturing and trade. This program aims to strengthen domestic manufacturing by easing regulatory burdens and investing in workforce development and supply chain security. Other notable activity in Lofler's first month includes a full-scale audit of the SBA's 8A program to address potential fraud among government contractors. In financial services, Lofler has implemented a directive to SBA lenders to stop debanking, denying services based on political or religious views, and enforce fair access to financial services.

Now, here's what supporters and critics are saying. Some outlets have reported favorably on Lofler's management of tariff-related disruptions and her efforts to support President Trump's policies for small businesses. Broadly, she has maintained support from groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which praised her for, quote, advocating for regulatory relief and re-werey. Hey, everybody. This is John, executive producer for Tangle. We hope you enjoyed this preview of our latest episode. If you are not currently a newsletter subscriber or a premium podcast subscriber and you are enjoying this content and would like to finish it, you can go to readtangle.com and sign up for a newsletter subscription or you can sign up for a podcast subscription or a bundled subscription which gets you both the podcast and the newsletter and unlocks the rest of this episode, as well as ad-free daily podcasts, more Friday editions, Sunday editions, bonus content, interviews, and so much

more. Most importantly, we just want to say, thank you so much for your support. We're working hard to bring you much more content and more offering, so stay tuned. I will join you again for the daily podcast. For the rest of the crew, this is John Law signing off.

Have a great day, y'all. Peace. Our executive editor and founder is Isaac Saul, and our executive producer is John Law. Today's episode was edited and engineered by John Law. Our editorial staff is led by managing editor Ari Weitzman with senior editor Will Kayback and associate editors Audrey Moorhead, Bailey Saul, Lindsay Canuth, and Kendall White.

Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75 and John Law. And to learn more about Tangle and to sign up for a membership, please visit our website at readtangle.com. Too many students are packed into overcrowded classrooms in Ontario schools, and it's hurting their ability to learn. But instead of helping our kids, the Ford government is playing politics, taking over school boards and silencing local voices. It shouldn't be this way.

the Ford government to get serious about tackling over crowded classrooms because smaller classes would make a big difference for our kids. Go to building better schools.ca.ca. A message from the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario.