Overview
- President Trump formally swore in John Rich at an Oval Office ceremony on Friday, July 10, 2026, after the USDA announced his appointment in June.
- The unpaid position is a voluntary, public-facing envoy role that will have Rich meet directly with landowners and coordinate with USDA leadership and agencies such as the EPA.
- USDA says Rich will focus on pressures from large-scale solar and wind development that may affect productive farmland, ranchland, and rural communities.
- Rich’s selection follows his local advocacy against a TVA project in Cheatham County, Tennessee, and reflects his long personal ties to Trump dating to 2011.
- Critics say the appointment fits the administration’s pattern of celebrity envoys and comes as the White House has reduced subsidies for renewables, a shift that could slow clean-energy deployment while electricity demand and prices rise.