Trump Agriculture Sec. Has Demented Plan to Keep Food Costs Down
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins just made her viral “let them eat chicken” moment so much worse.
Rollins landed in hot water last week after she claimed that following the Trump administration’s new dietary guidelines wouldn’t force Americans to spend more on groceries. The secretary claimed that “over 1,000 simulations” found that it would cost consumers only “around $3” for a meal consisting of a “piece of chicken, a piece of broccoli, a corn tortilla, and one other thing.”
Setting aside Rollins’s eerie reference to “simulations” rather than grocery store aisles, pretty much the entire internet—including several Democratic lawmakers—started trolling the secretary for doling out such paltry rations for Trump’s so-called “Golden Age.”
Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Rollins doubled down on her meager menu with an important caveat. “We had run almost 1,000 simulations and between $3 and $4 is a fair number—if you can have access to that food,” Rollins said.
She also rolled out a new and equally outrageous claim based on “new numbers.”
“A full day, meaning three full square meals and a snack, is about $15.64,” she claimed.
Brooke Rollins is still at it!
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 20, 2026
"We had run almost 1,000 simulations, and between $3 and $4 is a fair number if you can have access to that food. I just saw new numbers that were run: a full day, meaning 3 full square meals and a snack, is about $15.64." pic.twitter.com/ThWZK3FuEK
While $15.64 is perhaps a slightly more realistic number for the cost of a day of meals, it’s still incredibly low—and it isn’t even consistent with Rollins’s original claim. Let’s do some quick Trump Math: If every Rollins Meal only costs an average of $3.50, then three of them should only cost $10.50. So how much is left for a snack? Just over $5, which is more than the cost of any of the Rollins Meals! Does that make sense? No! But it doesn’t have to because it’s Trump Math!
The Trump administration has continued to claim that consumers can easily afford groceries, even as Americans struggle against a weakening job market and soaring prices spurred by Donald Trump’s outrageous tariff policies.
Meanwhile, the president’s family has raked in a whopping $1.4 billion since re-entering the White House one year ago, which is about 16,821 times the median U.S. household income.