
Trump's surgeon general pick exposes cracks in MAHA movement
Casey Means is a prominent health influencer and ally of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., but she is seen as insufficiently skeptical of vaccines by some of his prominent supporters — and a 'total crack pot' by others in Trump World.
Trump chose the Stanford-educated doctor-turned-chronic disease entrepreneur to be surgeon general after withdrawing his first pick Janette Nesheiwat, a former physician and Fox News host. Means, like Kennedy, has focused much of her health advocacy on diet and nutrition.
'Bobby really thought she was great. I don't know her. I listened to the recommendation of Bobby,' Trump said of Means. 'I met her yesterday and once before. She's a very outstanding person. A great academic, actually. So I think she'll be great.'
Nesheiwat's nomination was withdrawn the day before her Senate confirmation hearing, after media reports called her credentials into question and conservative figures attacked her for praising the COVID-19 vaccines.
Like Kennedy, Means has expressed skepticism about vaccines, promotes food as medicine and is critical of the current health care system. But the pick was unpopular with other health influencers aligned with Kennedy.
'I can't help but think this is a very carefully groomed and selected person. Just about no clinical experience. Talks a great game about everything but vaccines. Feels all wrong,' said Suzanne Humphries, a medical researcher who, like Means, has appeared on Joe Rogan's podcast.
'She's not a health freedom advocate,' Mike Adam, who goes by Health Ranger, wrote on social platform X. 'She's not a vaccine truther. She'll never recommend natural cancer cures or remedies. She's basically cosplaying as a MAHA champion.'
Means became a key influence in the MAHA movement last year along with her brother Calley Means, who works as an adviser to Kennedy in Department of Health and Human Services.
They co-wrote the book 'Good Energy: The Surprising Connection Between Metabolism and Limitless Health' about the connection between metabolism and personal health, and they promoted their ideas across conservative media, including a hit episode of Tucker Carlson's podcast.
The blowback to her nomination reflects the broader tensions within the MAHA movement, as different factions vie for influence in the Trump administration. The surgeon general serves as the public health face of the administration and wields a powerful bully pulpit, but has little actual authority.
Richard Carpiano, a professor of public policy at the University of California, Riverside, researches social factors affecting vaccine uptake and the anti-vaccine movement. He said Casey Means seems to have failed the purity test among some Kennedy supporters, but that public infighting also reflects the realities and limits MAHA.
'This is really kind of showing or pointing to questions of, you know, to what degree is it really like a movement or is it really just this kind of like brand that that Kennedy is really just trying to push,' Carpiano said.
MAGA influencer Laura Loomer in a series of posts on X accused the president's advisers of poorly vetting the new nominee for surgeon general.
She called Means a 'total crack pot' and 'Marxist tree hugger,' in the post, pointing to various alternative practices Means has written about, including communicating with spirit mediums and using hallucinogenic mushrooms as medicine.
Kennedy's former running mate, Nicole Shanahan, has also criticized Means's nomination, writing in a post on X that she was told neither of the Means siblings would work at department if she supported Kennedy.
'With regard to these siblings, there is something very artificial and aggressive about them, almost like they were bred and raised by Manchurian assets,' she wrote, adding that she suspected Kennedy was being controlled.
Kennedy has vehemently defended Means's nomination.
'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,' he wrote Thursday on X.
Calley Means on Friday shot back at Loomer, writing on X, 'Just received information that Laura Loomer is taking money from industry to scuttle President Trump's agenda. @LauraLoomer if that's incorrect, sue me and let's do discovery.'
Loomer responded by calling him a 'PR spin master' and accused him of being 'threatened' by her 'access to President Trump.'
Casey Means left a five-year residency program at the Oregon Health & Science University after 4 1/2 years due to anxiety and feeling she wanted to do something different, the Los Angeles Times reported.
She has since cultivated a large following online and is the co-founder of Levels, a health technology company that focuses on tracking health information through devices like continuous glucose monitors.
Those who've worked with Means describe her as someone with a genuine concern for public health, particularly when it comes to young people.
Soh Kim, executive director of the Stanford Center for Innovation and Design Research, worked alongside Means at Stanford University, teaching a food, design and technology course.
'She is very rare in terms of, like, her rigorous medical knowledge but also, she is somebody who can, you know, talk to anyone in the class with their level,' Kim said.
But others questioned her qualifications for such a high-profile public health role. Former U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams noted, shortly after Means was nominated, that the surgeon general position has historically been required to be held be a licensed physician.
'As the Senate is considering confirmation, it is important that historical precedent, the ability to effectively lead the USPHS, and the law, are all taken into consideration,' he wrote, referring to the U.S. Public Health Service, which the surgeon general oversees.
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All I remember is lying in this hotel bed, sweating and feeling like I was suffocating, and the doc telling me over the phone that if you take too much codeine, your brain stops telling your lungs to work. I was very lucky to survive. Although, the way I was feeling, I would have been happy never to wake up again. He also described being diagnosed in 2003 with "Parkinson-ian syndrome": Finally, me and Sharon went back to [Dr. Ropper's] office to find out what the f*** was wrong with me, once and for all. "I think I've got to the bottom of this," he said. "Basically, Mr Osbourne, you have a very, very rare condition, which is caused by your mother and your father both having the same damaged chromosome in their DNA. And when I say it's very rare, think one-in-a-billion rare. The good news is that it's not MS or Parkinson's disease. The bad news is that we don't really have a name for it. The best description is probably Parkinson -ian syndrome." "Is that what's been giving me the tremor?" "Absolutely." "And it's hereditary? It has nothing to do with the booze or the drugs?" "The alcohol and some of the drugs you were taking were definitely making it worse. But they weren't the primary cause." "Can you treat it?" "Yes. But first I have to tell you something, Mr Osbourne. If you keep drinking, and if you keep abusing drugs, you'll have to find another doctor, because I won't have you as a patient. I'm a busy man, I have a very long waiting list and I can't afford to have my time wasted." I'd never been spoken to like that by a doctor before. And the way he looked at me, I knew he was serious. "OK, doc," I said. "I'll try my hardest." Because of all his health issues, Osbourne described being "relieved" that he got the COVID-19 vaccine in February 2021. In an interview he gave before getting the shot, he said he wanted the two-dose vaccine: "I want to get the shot. … I look at it like this — if I don't get the shot and I get the virus, there's a good chance I ain't going to be here." Osbourne performed his final live show a few weeks before his death. His wife, Sharon Osbourne, told the media that this performance was his goodbye to his fans. The claim about his health and the COVID-19 vaccine is consistent with a common conspiracy theory that spread online during the pandemic, falsely attributing numerous famous peoples' deaths to the vaccine. We have previously fact-checked such claims about Betty White, Lisa Loring and even Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. We also reported in 2021 that there was very little evidence tying blood clot cases to the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. An investigation by the European Medicine Agency found that the vaccine was "safe and effective." While the EMA said that it would add a warning label to the vaccine to alert doctors and patients to the extremely rare possibility of blood clots, the agency said that "benefits of the vaccine clearly outweigh the risks." Emery, David. "Did Betty White Say She Got COVID Booster 3 Days Before She Died?" Snopes, 2 Jan. 2022, Accessed July 25, 2025. Evon, Dan. "Does AstraZeneca COVID-19 Vaccine Cause Blood Clots?" Snopes, 16 Mar. 2021, Accessed July 25, 2025. Grow, Kory. "Ozzy Osbourne on His Road Back From Hell: 'I Was Absolutely in Agony.'" Rolling Stone, 20 Aug. 2019, Accessed July 25, 2025. Liles, Jordan. "No Evidence Lisa Loring's Cause of Death Was COVID-19 Vaccine." Snopes, 31 Jan. 2023, Accessed July 25, 2025. Osbourne, Ozzy. I Am Ozzy. Grand Central Publishing, 2010. Accessed July 25, 2025. "Ozzy Osbourne Dies at 76: What He Shared About His Health Over the Years." 23 July 2025, Accessed July 25, 2025. Peters, Mitchell. "Ozzy Osbourne Says He's Feeling 'Relieved' After Getting His First COVID-19 Shot: Watch." Billboard, 15 Feb. 2021, Accessed July 25, 2025. Petridis, Alexis. "'I Don't Want to Die in a Hotel Room Somewhere': Black Sabbath on Reconciling for Their Final Gig – and How Ozzy Is Living through Hell." The Guardian, 2 May 2025. The Guardian, Accessed July 25, 2025. "Rocker Ozzy Osbourne Announces Parkinson's Diagnosis." AP News, 21 Jan. 2020, Accessed July 25, 2025. Wrona, Aleksandra. "Did Alexei Navalny Die from COVID-19 Vaccine?" Snopes, 21 Feb. 2024, Accessed July 25, 2025.