WASHINGTON (AP) — President Trump is tapping Dr. Casey Means, a wellness influencer with shut ties to Well being and Human Companies Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., as his nominee for surgeon common after withdrawing his preliminary choose for the influential well being publish.
Trump mentioned in a social media publish Wednesday that Means has “impeccable ‘MAHA’ credentials” — referring to the “Make America Healthy Again” slogan — and that she’ll work to eradicate continual illness and enhance the well being and well-being of People.
“Her academic achievements, together with her life’s work, are absolutely outstanding,” Trump mentioned. “Dr. Casey Means has the potential to be one of the finest Surgeon Generals in United States History.”
Means and her brother, former lobbyist Calley Means, served as key advisers to Kennedy’s longshot 2024 presidential bid and helped dealer his endorsement of Trump final summer season. The pair made appearances with a few of Trump’s largest supporters, successful reward from conservative pundit Tucker Carlson and podcaster Joe Rogan.
Calley Means is at present a White Home adviser who seems regularly on TV to advertise restrictions on SNAP advantages, eradicating fluoride from ingesting water and different MAHA agenda objects.
Casey Means in the meantime has no authorities expertise and dropped out of her surgical residency program, saying she turned disillusioned with conventional medication. She based a well being tech firm, Ranges, that helps customers monitor blood sugar and different metrics. She additionally makes cash from dietary dietary supplements, lotions, teas and different merchandise sponsored on her social media accounts.
In interviews and articles, Means and her brother describe a dizzying net of influences responsible for the nation’s well being issues, together with corrupt meals conglomerates which have hooked People on unhealthy diets, leaving them reliant on day by day drugs from the pharmaceutical business to handle weight problems, diabetes and different continual situations.
Few well being consultants would dispute that the American eating regimen — stuffed with processed meals — is a contributor to weight problems and associated issues. However Means goes additional, linking adjustments in eating regimen and way of life to a raft of situations together with infertility, Alzheimer’s, melancholy and erectile dysfunction.
“Almost every chronic health symptom that Western medicine addresses is the result of our cells being beleaguered by how we’ve come to live,” Means mentioned in a 2024 e-book co-written together with her brother.
Meals consultants say it’s overly simplistic to declare that each one processed meals are dangerous, because the designation covers an estimated 60% of U.S. meals, together with merchandise as numerous as granola, peanut butter and potato chips.
“They are not all created equal,” mentioned Gabby Headrick, a vitamin researcher at George Washington College’s college of public well being. “It is much more complicated than just pointing the finger at ultra-processed foods as the driver of chronic disease in the United States.”
Means has largely steered away from Kennedy’s controversial and debunked views on vaccines. However on her web site, she has referred to as for extra investigation into their security and recommends making it simpler for sufferers to sue drugmakers within the occasion of vaccine accidents. Because the late Nineteen Eighties, federal legislation has shielded these corporations from authorized legal responsibility to encourage improvement of vaccines with out the specter of pricey private damage lawsuits.
AP Picture/Jose Luis Magana
Well being and Human Companies Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks throughout a information convention on the Autism report by the CDC on the Hubert Humphrey Constructing Auditorium in Washington, Wednesday, April 16, 2025. (AP Picture/Jose Luis Magana)
Means skilled as a surgeon at Stanford College however has constructed a web-based following by criticizing the medical institution and selling pure meals and way of life adjustments to reverse weight problems, diabetes and different continual ailments.
If confirmed as surgeon common, Means could be tasked with serving to promote Kennedy’s sprawling MAHA agenda, which requires eradicating hundreds of components and chemical substances from U.S. meals, rooting out conflicts of curiosity at federal businesses and incentivizing more healthy meals at school lunches and different vitamin applications.
However she had not too long ago come below criticism from Laura Loomer, a far-right ally of Trump who was instrumental in ousting a number of members of the president’s Nationwide Safety Council. Loomer posted on X earlier this week that “we can’t have a pro-COVID vaccine nepo appointee who is currently embroiled in a medical malpractice case and who didn’t go to medical school in the US” because the surgeon common.
Janette Nesheiwat arrives on the Fox Nation’s Patriot Awards, Nov. 16, 2023, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Picture/George Walker IV, File)
Unbiased freelance journalist Anthony Clark reported final month that Nesheiwat earned her medical diploma from the American College of the Caribbean Faculty of Drugs in St. Maarten, regardless of saying that she has a level from the College of Arkansas Faculty of Drugs.
“I am looking forward to continuing to support President Trump and working closely with Secretary Kennedy in a senior policy role to Make America Healthy Again! My focus continues to be on improving the health and well-being of all Americans, and that mission hasn’t changed,” Nesheiwat wrote on social media Wednesday.
The surgeon common, thought of the nation’s physician, oversees 6,000 U.S. Public Well being Service Corps members and may difficulty advisories that warn of public well being threats.
In March, the White Home pulled from consideration the nomination of former Florida GOP Rep. Dave Weldon to guide the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention. His skepticism on vaccines had raised considerations from key Republican senators, and he withdrew after being instructed by the White Home that he didn’t have sufficient help to be confirmed.
