Ex-RFK Jr. Aide Calley Means Accuses Trump Advisers of Serving Industry Lobbyists
Means told CBS's "Face the Nation" that Susie Wiles and allies took money from industries the MAHA movement ran against, days after Wiles submitted her resignation.
Calley Means, a former senior White House adviser and top aide to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., accused several Trump administration officials on Sunday of putting industry interests ahead of public health.
Means made the claims on CBS's "Face the Nation," after going public Friday with specific allegations on "The Joe Rogan Experience." He said a group of former lobbyists inside the administration served the vaping, ultra-processed food, pharmaceutical and pesticide industries, and used the midterm elections as a reason to ignore what voters wanted. He said White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and a close-knit group of advisers were "taking money from the industries we ran on fighting against," and called on President Trump to "clear his house."
Means helped found the "Make America Healthy Again" movement and helped build the 2024 alliance between Trump and Kennedy. At HHS he helped lead work to revise the dietary guidelines and remove soda and candy from SNAP benefits before resigning last month.
On vaping, Means said Wiles and her deputy, James Blair, relentlessly pushed HHS to find a path to approving fruit-flavored vapes. The FDA approved some fruit-flavored e-cigarettes in early May. Blair denied the account, saying he never promoted flavored vaping and was tasked with making the FDA's nicotine device review follow the law's six-month deadline. Two sources told CBS News that Trump had asked Blair to press then-FDA Commissioner Marty Makary to respond faster to nicotine industry applications and that the president wanted flavored vapes more available. Makary was pressured to resign in May. He said tobacco companies repeatedly pressured him to approve flavored vapes that appeal to children, and that he refused.
Means also said Wiles arranged a lunch between tobacco lobbyists and Trump at his Florida golf course, a meeting The New York Times reported in May and multiple sources confirmed to CBS. Wiles denied arranging it.
Wiles submitted her resignation to Trump on Thursday night, according to a U.S. official and a senior White House adviser, and three sources tied it to Republican midterm losses. Asked whether he wanted her removed, Means said yes. It is unclear whether his remarks affected the timing. Stephen Miller is set to take over as chief of staff Monday, and Means said Miller was not among the advisers who blocked Kennedy's agenda.
Means also targeted adviser Heidi Overton, whom Trump nominated in August to run the FDA. He called her "the biggest block to MAHA policies" he encountered and said she lacks the "character or integrity" for the job. He alleged she told Makary she could not help him on other policies unless he approved Moderna's mRNA flu vaccine, which the FDA approved in August for adults 50 and older. An Overton spokesman replied that "two former FDA commissioners think otherwise."
On glyphosate, Means accused Overton of working with the Justice Department on a Supreme Court brief. A senior White House official said the solicitor general wrote the brief at the court's request and that Overton only softened its tone. In June the court ruled Monsanto cannot be held liable for failing to warn consumers about alleged cancer risks from Roundup. An EPA review of the herbicide is expected to finish in early 2027.
Means said he left with "tremendous respect" for Trump and Kennedy, and that advisers gave the president poor advice and kept information from him.
