Who is Casey Means, MAHA influencer picked by Trump for surgeon general?
President Trump on Wednesday picked Casey Means, a prominent influence in the “Make America Healthy Again” movement, to be his surgeon general, pulling the nomination of Janette Nesheiwat, a physician and former Fox News contributor.
Trump lauded Means, saying in a Truth Social post that her academic achievements and life's work would set her up to be one of the "finest Surgeon Generals in United States History."
Means graduated from Stanford Medical School but says she left the surgeon track to focus on "tackling the root cause of why Americans are sick."
She rose to prominence on the right in recent years through appearances on Tucker Carlson and Joe Rogan's podcasts, along with her brother, Calley Means, an adviser to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Casey Means has built a large following online for writing about health and wellness, espousing the same overarching idea as Kennedy: that unhealthy lifestyle choices and environmental toxins are to blame for obesity, cancer and other health crises facing the U.S.
Like many of Kennedy's allies, she has also been skeptical of vaccines, questioning their
"cumulative effects" on Americans.
She co-founded a health app that can connect to glucose monitors, and she promotes various health supplements through her online presence.
Here’s what you need to know about Means.
MAHA connections
Means is a prominent voice in the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement that Kennedy is trying to graft onto U.S. health care agencies.
She wrote in a February post on X that the new HHS secretary “has a vision for the future that aligns with what I want for my family, future children, and the world. RFK Jr has a track record of DECADES of environmental and health advocacy and he is about to run a big portion of the US economy.”
Her brother, Calley Means, is an influential figure within HHS, employed as a special government employee, and is credited with helping to facilitate the Kennedy-Trump political partnership during the 2024 campaign.
The siblings co-authored the 2024 book "Good Energy: The Surprising Connection Between Metabolism and Limitless Health."
“Almost every chronic health symptom that Western medicine addresses is the result of our cells being beleaguered by how we’ve come to live,” the book says.
The episode of "The Tucker Carlson Show" featuring the Means siblings, titled "The Truth About Ozempic, the Pill, and How Big Pharma Keeps You Sick,” was the most shared episode on Apple podcasts last year.
Nesheiwat, Trump's initial surgeon general pick, was publicly criticized by far-right influencer Laura Loomer, who claimed a "scalp" after her firing.
But some in MAHA circles were not happy about Means stepping into the role. Kennedy's running mate, Nicole Shanahan, criticized the pick in a post on X Wednesday night.
Background and beliefs
According to The New York Times, Means left a path of head and neck surgery for a practice in functional medicine, targeting the foundations of disease.
“During my training as a surgeon, I saw how broken and exploitative the healthcare system is and left to focus on how to keep people out of the operating room,” Means said in an online biography about herself.
The Times reported that obesity, diabetes and infertility are among the priority issues for Means. She has also endorsed raw milk, like Kennedy.
Means has been highly critical of vaccine mandates, the current vaccine schedule for children, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) broadly, suggesting criminal corruption in the agency.
“There is growing evidence that the total burden of the current extreme and growing vaccine schedule is causing health declines in vulnerable children. This needs to be investigated,” Means wrote in a newsletter around the 2024 election.
Means is also the co-founder of Levels, a health technology company centering around tracking health information through continuous glucose monitors.
"Levels helps you see how food impacts your health with AI-powered food logging, habit tracking, and smarter insights," its website says.
She has described a "devil's bargain" at the heart of the U.S. economy, writing in an October newsletter, "we have a set of food, chemical, and agriculture industries that profit trillions per year from people consuming and using as much cheap, additive, chemical-filled food and products as possible, and we have a $4.5 trillion healthcare system that profits off of the resultant diseases that emerge."
Colin Meyn contributed.