Rollins calls Texas ag chief ‘unserious’ amid screwworm threat

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on Monday called Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller “unserious” after he criticized the USDA‘s response to the growing threat from the flesh-eating New World Screwworm.

Miller, who lost the March Republican primary in a bid for a fourth term despite winning President Donald Trump‘s endorsement, has repeatedly slammed the USDA’s response after the parasitic pest was detected in Texas last week. He has argued that the federal department acted too slowly to contain the pest and ignored a response mechanism that he has pushed.

At a Monday news conference in Texas on the USDA’s response, Rollins was asked about Miller’s recent assertion that ranchers would not report a case on their farms over fear that the government would impose a quarantine.

“That is a very unserious comment, from perhaps an unserious ag commissioner with just a few months left,” she said of Miller. “It is also a very dangerous suggestion.”

The rift between Rollins and Miller effectively pits the top agricultural leaders in the country and in the state currently affected by the outbreak against each other. And it comes as the Trump administration races to contain the screwworm, which threatens to thin out an already weak cattle herd and further raise beef prices.

Rollins, also a Texan, slammed Miller in an appearance on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” earlier Monday.

“It’s very unfortunate what the Texas ag commissioner has been saying, I’ve known him for a long time,” Rollins said. “He lost his primary as the incumbent a few months ago, and has had lots of crazy ideas for a long time.”

Underscoring the spat is that Miller, a former rodeo cowboy who was once considered for Cabinet positions in the Trump administration, was endorsed by Trump just months ago before losing his primary to the Texas Gov. Greg Abbott-endorsed candidate, Nate Sheets. Miller has been a longtime Trump surrogate, once threatening to go after “RINOs” — shorthand for “Republican in name only” — who “slipped the noose” in the 2024 elections, and his criticism is a rare rebuke of Trump’s administration from a close ally.

In endorsing Miller, Trump said he is a “MAGA Warrior who has been with me from the very beginning.”

Miller’s feud with the USDA over screwworm began immediately after the first case was detected last Wednesday. In a lengthy statement, he said Rollins and her department moved “too slowly and relied solely on a partial solution that takes years to fully implement.”

He urged the USDA to implement the Screwworm Adult Suppression System, or SWASS, which was developed in the 1970s and…