What the Domestic Policy Council Does
The Domestic Policy Council is a unit within the Executive Office of the President responsible for coordinating the development, implementation, and communication of the president’s domestic policy agenda. It serves as the central coordination point for policy development across cabinet departments when an issue requires input from multiple agencies, healthcare, education, housing, agriculture, immigration, criminal justice, and similar areas all involve multiple departments whose work must be coordinated.
The DPC does not implement policy itself. It coordinates the agencies that do. When the president wants to develop a new policy on, say, prescription drug pricing, the DPC would convene the relevant agencies (HHS, FDA, CMS), gather their input, analyze the tradeoffs, and present the president with options. Once the president chooses a direction, the DPC coordinates implementation across those same agencies.
Brooke Rollins: What She Told Breaking Battlegrounds
Brooke Rollins served as Director of the Domestic Policy Council during the first Trump term, having previously served as Director of the Office of American Innovation. She appeared on Breaking Battlegrounds to discuss her experience shaping domestic policy from inside the White House and her perspective on women in leadership positions in the Trump administration.
Rollins has since been confirmed as Secretary of Agriculture in the second Trump term, bringing her White House domestic policy experience to the cabinet level. Her Breaking Battlegrounds interview provides a rare first-person account of how the DPC actually functions in practice, not the formal organizational chart, but the actual dynamics of coordinating policy development across competing agency interests.
The DPC's Current Priorities in the Second Term
In the second Trump term, the Domestic Policy Council’s priorities have included regulatory rollback coordination (ensuring agencies’ deregulatory actions are legally sound and sequenced properly), workforce development policy, agricultural sector support, and coordination of immigration enforcement across the relevant agencies (DHS, DOJ, State, and HHS all have roles in immigration policy).
The DPC also coordinates the administration’s response to the economic impacts of trade policy, when tariffs create downstream effects in specific sectors, the DPC coordinates the policy responses across the relevant agencies.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Domestic Policy Council?
The Domestic Policy Council is an office within the Executive Office of the President that coordinates the development and implementation of the president’s domestic policy agenda across federal departments and agencies.
Who has led the Domestic Policy Council?
Recent directors include Brooke Rollins (Trump first term) and Susan Rice (Biden administration). Rollins subsequently served as Secretary of Agriculture in Trump’s second term.
How is the Domestic Policy Council different from the National Security Council?
The National Security Council coordinates foreign policy and national security. The Domestic Policy Council handles domestic policy, healthcare, education, housing, immigration enforcement coordination, and similar areas.
