President Donald Trump is tapping Dr. Casey Means, a physician-turned-wellness influencer with shut ties to Well being and Human Companies Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., as his nominee for surgeon basic after withdrawing his preliminary choose for the influential well being submit.
Trump stated in a social media submit Wednesday that Means has “impeccable ‘MAHA’ credentials” – referring to the “ Make America Healthy Again ” slogan – and that she is going to work to eradicate persistent illness and enhance the well being and well-being of Individuals.
“Her academic achievements, together with her life’s work, are absolutely outstanding,” Trump stated. “Dr. Casey Means has the potential to be one of the finest Surgeon Generals in United States History.”
In doing so, Trump withdrew former Fox Information medical contributor Janette Nesheiwat from consideration for the job, marking a minimum of the second health-related choose from Trump to be pulled from Senate consideration. Nesheiwat had been scheduled to seem earlier than the Senate Well being, Schooling, Labor and Pensions Committee Thursday for her affirmation listening to.
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 time. The pair made appearances with a few of Trump’s greatest supporters, successful reward from conservative pundit Tucker Carlson and podcaster Joe Rogan. Calley Means is presently a White Home adviser who seems incessantly on tv to advertise restrictions on SNAP advantages, eradicating fluoride from consuming water and different MAHA agenda gadgets.
Casey Means 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 accountable for the nation’s well being issues, together with corrupt meals conglomerates which have hooked Individuals on unhealthy diets, leaving them reliant on each day drugs from the pharmaceutical trade to handle weight problems, diabetes and different persistent circumstances.
Few well being specialists would dispute that the American weight loss program — stuffed with processed meals — is a contributor to weight problems and associated issues. However Means goes additional, linking modifications in weight loss program and life-style to a raft of circumstances 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 stated in a 2024 e-book co-written along with her brother.
Meals specialists say it’s overly simplistic to declare that every one processed meals are dangerous, for the reason that designation covers an estimated 60% of U.S. meals, together with merchandise as various as granola, peanut butter and potato chips.
“They are not all created equal,” stated Gabby Headrick, a vitamin researcher at George Washington College’s faculty 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 principally 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 firms from authorized legal responsibility to encourage growth of vaccines with out the specter of pricey private harm lawsuits.
She educated as a surgeon at Stanford College however has constructed a web-based following by criticizing the medical institution and selling pure meals and life-style modifications to reverse weight problems, diabetes and different persistent ailments.
If confirmed as surgeon basic, Means can be tasked with serving to promote Kennedy’s sprawling MAHA agenda, which requires eradicating 1000’s of components and chemical substances from U.S. meals, rooting out conflicts of curiosity at federal businesses and incentivizing more healthy meals in faculty lunches and different vitamin packages.
Nesheiwat, Trump’s first choose, is a medical director for an pressing care firm in New York and has appeared often on Fox Information to supply medical experience and insights. She is a vocal supporter of Trump and shares pictures of them collectively on social media. Nesheiwat can be the sister-in-law of former nationwide safety adviser Mike Waltz, who has been nominated to be Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations.
However she had not too long ago come beneath 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 basic.
Impartial 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. The White Home pulled Nesheiwat’s nomination due to doubts about her affirmation prospects, in accordance with an individual accustomed to the matter who spoke on situation of anonymity to debate the administration’s reasoning.
“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 basic, thought-about the nation’s physician, oversees 6,000 U.S. Public Well being Service Corps members and might situation 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 assist to be confirmed.
The withdrawal was first reported by Bloomberg Information.
This story was initially featured on Fortune.com
