NEW YORK (AP) — Veteran NBC host and news anchor Craig Melvin has been tapped to replace Hoda Kotb as co-host of the 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. hours of “Today.”
Melvin is a familiar face to “Today” show viewers. He currently hosts the show’s third hour and is the news anchor during the first two hours. He will continue hosting the third hour with Al Roker, Dylan Dreyer and Sheinelle Jones.
“He’s been an integral and beloved part of our family," Libby Leist, senior vice president of “Today,” said in a statement. "From breaking news coverage in the field, to presidential interviews, to multiple Olympics and Super Bowls, Craig’s shown he has the talent and the range to cover all that we do here at ‘Today.’ And he does it without ever losing that Southern charm.”
Kotb’s last official day at the show will be Jan. 10. She announced in September that she was leaving “Today,” which generally runs third in the morning ratings to ABC’s “Good Morning America.” NBC News hasn't revealed the pick for Kotb’s other role, co-anchoring the 10 a.m. hour, which she does with Jenna Bush Hager.
“I’ve enjoyed just a lifetime of blessings and this is the latest,” Melvin said Thursday on air. Of Kotb and Guthrie, he said: “You guys are the sisters I never thought I needed.” And he said of Kotb — “you saved the show,” which, while hyperbolic, was a reference to her taking over hurriedly after the Matt Lauer scandal.
Melvin's wife, sportscaster Lindsay Czarniak, who was host of NBC’s coverage of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games on the USA Network, posted her congratulations on Instagram.
“The opportunity to watch the person you love see their dream come true is such a gift. I will never forget this day and the crowds’ excitement to share your good news,” she wrote.
FILE - Craig Melvin appears on NBC's "Today" show in New York on Aug. 11, 2023. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump said Saturday that he will nominate former White House aide Brooke Rollins to be his agriculture secretary, the last of his picks to lead executive agencies and another choice from within his established circle of advisers and allies.
The nomination must be confirmed by the Senate, which will be controlled by Republicans when Trump takes office Jan. 20, 2025. Rollins would succeed Tom Vilsack, President Joe Biden’s agriculture secretary who oversees the sprawling agency that controls policies, regulations and aid programs related to farming, forestry, ranching, food quality and nutrition.
Rollins, who graduated from Texas A&M University with a degree in agricultural development, is a longtime Trump associate who served as White House domestic policy chief during his first presidency. The 52-year-old is president and CEO of the America First Policy Institute, a group helping to lay the groundwork for a second Trump administration. Rollins previously served as an aide to former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and ran a think tank, the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
The pick completes Trump’s selection of the heads of executive branch departments, just two and a half weeks after the former president won the White House once again. Several other picks that are traditionally Cabinet-level remain, including U.S. Trade Representative and head of the small business administration.
Rollins, speaking on the Christian talk show “Family Talk" earlier this year, said Trump was an “amazing boss” and confessed that she thought in 2015, during his first presidential campaign that he would not last as a candidate in a crowded Republican primary field.
“I was the person that said, ‘Oh, Donald Trump is not going to go more than two or three weeks in the Republican primary. This is to up his TV show ratings. And then we’ll get back to normal,’” she said. “Fast forward a couple of years, and I am running his domestic policy agenda.”
Trump didn’t offer many specifics about his agriculture policies during the campaign, but farmers could be affected if he carries out his pledge to impose widespread tariffs. During the first Trump administration, countries like China responded to Trump’s tariffs by imposing retaliatory tariffs on U.S. exports like the corn and soybeans routinely sold overseas. Trump countered by offering massive multibillion-dollar aid to farmers to help them weather the trade war.
President Abraham Lincoln founded the USDA in 1862, when about half of all Americans lived on farms. The USDA oversees multiple support programs for farmers; animal and plant health; and the safety of meat, poultry and eggs that anchor the nation’s food supply. Its federal nutrition programs provide food to low-income people, pregnant women and young children. And the agency sets standards for school meals.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, has vowed to strip ultraprocessed foods from school lunches and to stop allowing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program beneficiaries from using food stamps to buy soda, candy or other so-called junk foods. But it would be the USDA, not HHS, that would be responsible for enacting those changes.
In addition, HHS and USDA will work together to finalize the 2025-2030 edition of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. They are due late next year, with guidance for healthy diets and standards for federal nutrition programs.
FILE - Brooke Rollins speaks at a campaign rally at Madison Square Garden, Oct. 27, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
FILE - Former President Donald Trump speaks with construction workers in midtown Manhattan, April 25, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File)
