Agency: U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Role: Deputy Director of Communications (April 2025–present) Severity: P2

Basis for Inclusion Subject classification: Public Official (non-elected appointee) Role at time of documented conduct: Deputy Director of Communications, USDA, appointed April 2025. Varsamis is the number-two communications official at USDA, with a first-term background as press secretary and acting communications director under Secretary Sonny Perdue. He returned to USDA after a period in private-sector agriculture and food industry public affairs. Protected speech note: Prior private-sector work at Ketchum and Veno Group is documented as professional background. Accountability findings rest on official government conduct.

Quick Navigation

• Bio and Background
• Role and Communications Function
• Messaging Strategy
• Significant Public Statements
• Controversies
• Overall Veracity Track Record
• Social Media Accounts
• Key Source Links

Bio and Background {#bio}

Alec Varsamis is a two-term Trump USDA communications veteran with substantial private-sector agriculture and food industry public affairs experience between his government tenures.

Education:

• Graduate of the University of San Francisco

Career history:

• First Trump Administration — USDA Press Secretary (2017–2021): Served as Press Secretary at the U.S. Department of Agriculture under Secretary Sonny Perdue; also served as Acting Communications Director for the department
• Private sector — Ketchum: Account supervisor role focused on agriculture, food, and ingredients as well as crisis and issue management communications
• Private sector — Veno Group: Account supervisor role in similar agriculture, food, and ingredients communications practice
• Second Trump Administration — USDA Deputy Director of Communications (April 2025–present): Returned to USDA as Deputy Director of Communications under Secretary Brooke Rollins, reporting to Communications Director Seth Christensen

Source: Agri-Pulse, “Farm Hands on the Potomac: House Ag Committee staff changes, Varsamis rejoins USDA.” https://www.agri-pulse.com/articles/22614-farm-hands-on-the-potomac-house-ag-committee-staff-changes-varsamis-rejoins-usda

Source: USDA press release, “USDA Announces New Presidential Appointments,” April 14, 2025. https://www.usda.gov/about-usda/news/press-releases/2025/04/14/usda-announces-new-presidential-appointments

Role and Communications Function {#role}

As Deputy Director of Communications, Varsamis is the second-ranking communications official at USDA. His institutional knowledge from the first Trump administration — particularly his acting communications director experience under Perdue — makes him a senior institutional resource for continuity of communications operations and messaging strategy.

Varsamis’s role includes:

• Supporting USDA’s day-to-day media operations
• Coordinating communications with Secretary Rollins’ communications team
• Managing media relationships developed during his first term and private sector years
• Contributing to trade and agricultural policy communications

Given his background specifically in crisis and issue management communications (at Ketchum and Veno Group), Varsamis brings specialized capacity for managing communications around controversial policy actions — a relevant skill set for an administration whose tariff policies have generated significant agricultural sector disruption.

Source: USDA press release, April 14, 2025 (above); Agri-Pulse biographical notes.

Messaging Strategy {#messaging-strategy}

Varsamis brings two distinct sets of communications experience to his USDA role:

Government press operations experience: His first-term USDA tenure under Perdue covered the administration’s agricultural trade disputes with China (including retaliatory tariffs that significantly damaged U.S. soybean and pork exports), the farm bailout programs that followed, and USDA’s general communications portfolio. This institutional experience is directly relevant to the current tariff cycle.

Industry crisis communications experience: His private-sector roles at Ketchum and Veno Group focused on “crisis and issue management” for multinational agriculture, food, and ingredients companies — communications work specifically designed to manage reputational threats and policy-adverse media environments for industry clients. This background shapes his approach to USDA communications challenges.

USDA’s current communications environment requires managing messages around: farm income impacts from tariff retaliation by trading partners; commodity price volatility; food safety during a period of federal workforce changes; and the administration’s “Farmers First” narrative in a context where agricultural export markets have been affected by trade policy.

Significant Public Statements {#statements}

Individual attributable public statements from Varsamis in his current USDA role are not documented in available press sources as of publication date. As Deputy Director, his public profile is below that of Secretary Rollins and the primary press secretary.

Note: This profile will be updated as attributable statements are documented in agricultural trade publications, general media, or congressional proceedings.

Controversies {#controversies}

No specific controversies documented as of publication date. The primary accountability significance of Varsamis’s profile is:

First-term tariff communications context: During the first Trump administration, Varsamis served as USDA press secretary while the administration’s China tariffs generated retaliatory measures that significantly damaged U.S. agricultural exports. The farm bailout programs that followed (Market Facilitation Program, etc.) were substantially funded through USDA’s Commodity Credit Corporation. The messaging patterns developed during that period are directly precedent-setting for the current second-term tariff cycle.