The MAGA backlash to Trump's MAHA surgeon general pick

Politico

08-05-2025

President Donald Trump's new pick for surgeon general — wellness influencer Casey Means — is already the target of MAGA vitriol, underscoring a split inside the president's base over the future of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s 'Make America Healthy Again' movement.
Trump's decision to select Means came just hours after news broke about his decision to withdraw Janette Nesheiwat, a former Fox News contributor, for the post.
Her brother, Calley Means, reportedly helped connect Kennedy with Trump last summer before Kennedy dropped his own presidential bid and endorsed Trump. He is now a White House adviser.
Both siblings promote the idea that many chronic conditions can be prevented with lifestyle changes — like eating healthy and exercising — and, like Kennedy, often speak out against the food and pharmaceutical industries.
The siblings caught Kennedy's attention last year, when they appeared on an episode of Tucker Carlson's podcast. But Casey has proved a controversial pick. In an opaque post to X late Wednesday, Kennedy's former presidential running mate, philanthropist Nicole Shanahan, said Kennedy had promised her he wouldn't bring the siblings to HHS.
Laura Loomer, a conservative influencer close to Trump who urged him to pull Nesheiwat's nomination, also criticized Means for not having an active medical license. In a post to X, Loomer accused Means of praying to 'inanimate objects' and communicating with 'spirit mediums.' However, several other MAGA influencers have lined up in support of the pick.
Calley Means did not respond to a request for comment. An HHS spokesperson said the agency would respond to requests for comment on Casey Means' behalf, and directed POLITICO to Kennedy's post on X.
'The absurd attacks on Casey Means reveal just how far off course our healthcare conversations have veered, and how badly entrenched interests — including Big Food and its industry-funded social media gurus — are terrified of change,' Kennedy wrote.
Here's what you need to know about Means:
1. She graduated medical school, but dropped out of her residency Means was trained at Stanford Medical School as a head and neck surgeon. But she dropped out of her surgical residency in the fifth year, a decision she has attributed to disillusionment with the medical system. She says it has not done enough to address the root cause of disease.
2. She's echoed some of Kennedy's vaccine misinformation It's not clear if Means shares all of Kennedy's concerns about vaccines — Kennedy has long argued that there's a link between rising autism cases and the childhood schedule of shots — but she has written in her newsletter that she wants to see the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 'reformed' to allow lawsuits against vaccine manufacturers from patients with vaccine-related injuries. That's also a Kennedy priority.
In the same newsletter, she claimed, in defiance of medical consensus, that 'there is growing evidence that the total burden of the current extreme and growing vaccine schedule is causing health declines in vulnerable children. This needs to be investigated.'
3. 'Impeccable 'MAHA' credentials'Means has dedicated her post-medical-school life to promoting healthy eating and lifestyle as a tactic to prevent chronic conditions — a world view in line with Kennedy's. She wrote a book with her brother called 'Good Energy' — which makes the same case.
Means also co-founded Levels, a biowearables and health-tracking company funded by Andreessen Horowitz, a venture capital firm whose founders endorsed Trump last year. One of Levels' co-founders, Sam Corcos, reportedly is now the Treasury Department's chief information officer.
Trump summed up her academic and professional history as 'impeccable 'MAHA' credentials' in a Truth Social post Wednesday, and Kennedy called Means 'a breath of fresh air.'
4. She's already facing MAGA backlash ….Since Trump announced Means' selection, she has become a target of Loomer, a social media personality who often has Trump's ear.
'Maybe @marcorubio can be Surgeon General and save us from this WOO WOO WOMAN,' Loomer posted on X Thursday, referencing Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is concurrently serving as national security adviser following Trump's decision to remove another Loomer target, Mike Waltz, from the job.
Loomer also came after Means for not having an active medical license: 'I would call her a Witch Doctor, but she doesn't even have a valid active medical license. So I'm not going to call @CaseyMeansMD doctor.'
5. … and MAHA backlash Means also attracted the (negative) attention of Kennedy's former running mate during his 2024 presidential bid, Shanahan. A lawyer, she was married to Google co-founder Sergey Brin until their divorce two years ago, Shanahan called the Means siblings 'artificial and aggressive' like 'they were bred and raised to be Manchurian assets,' an apparent reference to the 1962 film 'The Manchurian Candidate' in which an Army sergeant is brainwashed by communists.
'I was promised that if I supported RFK Jr. in his Senate confirmation that neither of these siblings would be working under HHS or in an appointment (and that people much more qualified would be.),' Shanahan wrote on X. 'I don't know if RFK very clearly lied to me, or what is going on.'