Calley Means quits Kennedy adviser role in Trump administration amid food-policy delays

Means says he will continue Kennedy’s MAHA work

Calley Means, a top ally of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in the Trump administration, was a senior adviser to the health secretary who also worked in the White House to further “Make America Healthy Again” policies. He quit his role on Thursday, according to The Wall Street Journal. The departure came as administration officials deferred announcements of two food priorities and people familiar with the matter said Means had been frustrated by White House delays.

Means said he would continue working to further Kennedy’s MAHA agenda. “I leave with tremendous respect for President Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,” he said. “This movement is in the first inning and just getting started.” Means declined to comment on the reasons for his departure.

Means’s exit came after administration officials deferred announcements of two of Kennedy’s food priorities: a definition of ultraprocessed foods aimed at eventually labeling them as such, and a regulation mandating less added sugar and more protein in school meals. The White House and the Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

People familiar with the matter said Means was greatly frustrated by White House delays of some of Kennedy’s most popular policy ideas and blamed others in the administration for allowing food companies and special interests to have too much sway. One of the people described Means as “disillusioned.”

Food policy was Means’s focus, and The Wall Street Journal reported that he was a key player in driving a number of MAHA policies. Those included the revised dietary guidelines and inverted food pyramid, the Food and Drug Administration’s push for more transparency on food ingredients, the White House’s executive order boosting psychedelics and a voluntary phaseout of a number of petroleum-based food dyes. Though food policy was his focus, Means defended Kennedy’s vaccine moves and accused the health secretary’s critics of being too focused on measles rather than widespread chronic disease.

The Wall Street Journal previously reported that Means had clashed with other White House officials in recent months, sometimes raising his voice and growing visibly frustrated. That earlier reporting also said some people found Means difficult to work with and unwilling to make practical concessions to ensure policies were feasible.

The Wall Street Journal reported that some Republicans in the party are seeking to appeal to MAHA voters ahead of the midterm elections, and that some Kennedy fans have in recent months publicly voiced their disapproval of Trump’s support for pesticides, slow progress on food policy and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s continued recommendation of Covid vaccines.

The report described Means as a high-profile figure in the MAHA movement. He co-wrote the book Good Energy, which was passed around in the 2024 Trump campaign as a guide to healthy eating and problems with America’s food system, and he later helped broker Kennedy’s initial call with Trump that led to the two men joining forces. Means initially aided Kennedy’s efforts at the Department of Health and Human Services as a special government employee before leaving his role at TrueMed, the company he co-founded. TrueMed is a payment platform that enables customers to use Health Savings Accounts and other pretax dollars to purchase wellness products.

The conservative podcaster Megyn Kelly last year called Means the “heart of MAHA.” Means’s sister and co-author, Dr. Casey Means, was tapped by Trump to be surgeon general in May of last year, but concerns from senators over her vaccine positions helped sink her nomination to the job, according to the report.

Liz Essley Whyte, who wrote the Journal’s account, is a health policy reporter in The Wall Street Journal’s D.C. bureau, with a special focus on the federal health agencies. She joined the Journal in 2022. Before that, she was an investigative reporter at the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit newsroom, where for several years she covered statehouse lobbying, campaign finance and ballot measures. Her investigations spurred lawmakers to propose federal legislation and investigate a state Medicaid official. She was part of reporting teams that won Goldsmith and Loeb awards. She began her career covering local transportation for the Washington Examiner and can be reached on Signal at the username JournoLiz.80.