Takeaways from AP's report on financial interests of RFK Jr. adviser who runs wellness platform
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The AP reviewed more than two dozen interviews, speeches, articles and podcast appearances by Means both before and after he joined the government.
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Here are some takeaways from the AP's reporting:
Attacking prescription drugs, promoting wellness alternatives
Means' company, Truemed, helps users take tax-free money out of their health savings accounts, or HSAs, to spend on things that wouldn't normally qualify as medical expenses, such as meal delivery services and homeopathic products — remedies based on a centuries-old, debunked theory of medicine.
As a top messenger for the administration, Means has been promoting a new government report that calls for scaling back prescription drugs for depression, weight loss and other conditions.
By criticizing the use of drugs and other rigorously tested products, health experts say Means is furthering the interests of his company, which offers alternatives to traditional medicine.
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'It reeks of hypocrisy,' said Dr. Reshma Ramachandran, a health researcher at Yale University. 'In effect, he is representing another industry that is touting nonregulated products and using his platform within the government to financially benefit himself.'
In a written statement, Means said his government work has not dealt with matters affecting Truemed and has focused on issues like reforming nutrition programs and pressuring companies to phase out food dyes.
'Pursuing these large-scale MAHA goals to make America healthy has been the sole focus in my government work,' Means said.
Undisclosed interests
The full extent of Means' potential financial conflicts are unclear because of his status as a special government employee.
Unlike presidential appointees and other senior officials, special government employees do not have to leave companies or sell investments that could be impacted by their work. Also, their financial disclosure forms are shielded from public release.
'It's a big problem,' says Richard Painter, former White House ethics lawyer under George W. Bush. 'I think it's a loophole.'
Plugging products and business associates
While promoting the administration's accomplishments, Means has not shied away from plugging his own brand or those of his business partners.
When asked to offer health advice to listeners of a sports podcast, Outkick The Show, in April, Means suggested they read his book 'Good Energy,' which he co-authored with his sister, Dr. Casey Means.
He also recommended blood tests sold by Function Health, which provides subscription-based testing for $500 annually. The company was cofounded by Dr. Mark Hyman, a friend of Kennedy and an investor in Truemed, which also offers Hyman's supplements through its platform.
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Like dietary supplements, the tests marketed by Function Health are not clinically approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
'It ends up favoring these products and services that rest on flimsy grounds, at the expense of products that have actually survived a rigorous FDA approval process,' said Dr. Peter Lurie, a former FDA official who is now president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
Steering medical dollars into health savings accounts
Means says he has not worked on issues impacting HSAs since joining the federal government. Federal ethics laws forbid government employees from taking part in decisions that could impact their financial situation.
But before joining government, Means said the mission of his company 'is to steer medical dollars into flexible spending.'
'I want to get that $4.5 trillion of Medicare, Medicaid, everything into a flexible account,' he told fitness celebrity Jillian Michaels, on her podcast last year.
Truemed collects fees when users and partnering companies use its platform.
Means also founded a lobbying group, made up of MAHA entrepreneurs and TrueMed vendors, that listed expanding HSAs as a goal on its website.
Means said in a statement that the group focused only on broad topics like 'health care incentives and patient choice — but did not lobby for specific bills.'
Benefits of HSAs questioned
Expanding HSAs has been part of the Republican health platform for more than 20 years. The tax-free accounts were created in 2003 to encourage Americans in high-deductible plans to be judicious with their health dollars.
But HSAs have not brought down spending, economists say. They are disproportionately used by the wealthiest Americans, who have more income to fund them and bigger incentives to lower their tax rate.
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Americans who earn more than $1 million annually are the group most likely to make regular HSA contributions, according to an analysis by the nonprofit Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Most Americans with HSAs have balances less than $500.
HSA expansions in Trump's 'One Big Beautiful Bill' are projected to cost the federal government $180 billion over the next 10 years.
'These are really just tax breaks in the guise of health policy that overwhelmingly benefit people with high incomes,' said Gideon Lukens, a former White House budget official during the Obama and Trump administrations.
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an hour ago
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Visits are considered a provocation across the Muslim world and openly praying violates a longstanding status quo at the combustible site. Under the status quo, Jews have been allowed to tour the site but are barred from praying, with Israeli police and troops providing security. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said after Ben-Gvir's visit that Israel would not change the norms governing the holy site. Ben-Gvir made the stop following Hamas' release of videos showing two emaciated Israeli hostages. The videos caused in uproar in Israel and raised pressure on the government to reach a deal to bring home from Gaza the remaining hostages who were captured on Oct. 7, 2023, in the attack that triggered the war. During his visit to the hilltop compound, Ben-Gvir called for Israel to annex the Gaza Strip and encourage Palestinians to leave, reviving rhetoric that has complicated negotiations to end the war. He raged against a video that Hamas released Saturday of 24-year-old hostage Evyatar David showing him skeletal and hollow-eyed in a dimly lit Gaza tunnel. He called it an attempt to pressure Israel. Ben-Gvir's previous visits to the site have been explosive and prompted threats from Palestinian militant groups. Clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinian demonstrators in and around the site fueled an 11-day war with Hamas in 2021. His Sunday visit was swiftly condemned as an incitement by Palestinian leaders as well as Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Sufian Qudah, spokesman for the foreign ministry in neighboring Jordan, which serves as the custodian of the Al Aqsa Mosque, condemned what he called 'provocative incursions by the extremist minister' and implored Israel to prevent escalation. Videos of hungry and suffering Israeli hostages Israel has been jolted this week by videos of hostages with their faces hollow, ribs protruding and bodies ravaged by hunger. The videos — released by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the second-largest militant group in Gaza — triggered outrage across the political spectrum in Israel. Tens of thousands rallied in Tel Aviv on Saturday urging Israel and the United States to urgently pursue their release after suspending ceasefire talks. Right-wing politicians who have opposed deals with Hamas said the footage reinforced their conviction that the militant group must be obliterated once and for all. 'From here we need to bring a message and ensure that from today, we conquer all of the Gaza Strip, declare sovereignty over all of the Gaza Strip, take out every Hamas member and encourage voluntary emigration,' Ben-Gvir said on a video posted on social media after his visit to the holy site. Deadly chaos grips food distribution points Palestinians reported more deadly violence at aid sites and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said a staff member had been killed when Israeli forces shelled its office with artillery. With international anger growing at the situation in Gaza, around 90,000 protesters in Australia marched across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, turning the city landmark into a symbol of opposition to Israel's military campaign in Gaza. Hospital officials said Israeli forces killed at least 27 Palestinians seeking food on Sunday in the besieged territory, where witnesses described facing gunfire as hungry crowds surged toward aid sites and the malnutrition-related death toll also rose. Desperation has gripped the Palestinian territory of more than 2 million, which experts warn is facing 'a worst-case scenario of famine ″ because of Israel's blockade and nearly two-year offensive. Yousef Abed, among the people en route to a distribution point, described coming under indiscriminate fire, seeing at least three people bleeding on the ground. 'I couldn't stop and help them because of the bullets,' he said. Two hospitals in southern and central Gaza reported receiving bodies from routes leading to Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid sites, including 11 killed in the Teina area en route to a distribution point in Khan Younis. Three Palestinian eyewitnesses, including one traveling through Teina, told The Associated Press that shootings occurred on the routes, which are in military zones secured by Israeli forces. They said they saw soldiers open fire on hungry crowds advancing toward troops. Eyewitnesses seeking food have reported similar gunfire attacks in recent days near aid distribution sites, leaving dozens of Palestinians dead. The United Nations reported 859 people were killed near GHF sites from May 27 to July 31 and that hundreds more have been slain along the routes of U.N.-led food convoys. GHF says its armed contractors have only used pepper spray or fired warning shots to prevent deadly crowding. Israel's military has said it only fires warning shots as well. Both claimed the death tolls have been exaggerated. Israel's military did not immediately responded to questions about Sunday's reported fatalities at the sites but said it was reviewing Red Crescent's claim. GHF's Media Office said there was no gunfire 'near or at our sites.' Meanwhile, the Gaza Health Ministry said six more Palestinian adults died of malnutrition-related causes over the past 24 hours. It said Sunday's casualties brought the death toll among Palestinian adults to 82 over the five weeks since the ministry started counting deaths among adults in late June. Malnutrition-related deaths are not included in the ministry's count of war casualties. Ninety-three children have also died of causes related to malnutrition since the war in Gaza started in 2023, the ministry said. Israel has taken a series of steps to increase the flow of food into Gaza over the past week, but U.N. and relief groups say conditions have not improved. The war began when Hamas attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people, and abducting another 251. They are still holding 50 captives, around 20 believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefires or other deals. Israel's retaliatory military offensive has killed more than 60,400 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. The ministry, which doesn't distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count, is staffed by medical professionals. The United Nations and other independent experts view its figures as the most reliable count of casualties. Israel has disputed its figures, but hasn't provided its own account of casualties.
