Loomer targets new Trump surgeon general pick

Laura Loomer, a right-wing provocateur and prominent supporter of President Trump, has set her sights on Dr. Casey Means, the physician-turned-wellness influencer who Trump tapped as his new nominee to be U.S. surgeon general on Wednesday.

In a series of posts on social platform X that began shortly after Trump's announcement, Loomer accused the president's advisers of poor vetting and attacked Means's background.

"This is honestly insane," she wrote in one post Thursday morning. "I do not believe for one second that Donald Trump made this decision. I refuse to believe it."

Loomer went on to label chronic-disease entrepreneur Means, a close ally of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the "Make American Healthy Again" — or MAHA — movement, a "Marxist tree hugger."

"PRESIDENT TRUMP’S PICK FOR US SURGEON GENERAL CASEY MEANS SAID SHE PRAYS TO INANIMATE OBJECTS, COMMUNICATES WITH SPIRIT MEDIUMS, USES SHROOMS AS 'PLANT MEDICINE' AND TALKS TO TREES! SHE ALSO DOESN’T EVEN HAVE AN ACTIVE MEDICAL LICENSE," Loomer wrote between two red alert emojis.

Trump announced Wednesday that he had pulled his nomination of Dr. Janette Nesheiwat to become surgeon general, amid questions over her credentials, and replaced his initial pick with Means.

"[Means's] academic achievements, together with her life's work, are absolutely outstanding," Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social about the swap. "Dr. Casey Means has the potential to be one of the finest Surgeon Generals in United States History."

Loomer, who was widely credited with Nesheiwat's downfall as well as the firings of multiple national security aides last month, quickly shifted her attacks to the new surgeon general nominee.

"This is so embarrassing for the Trump administration. They chose a social media influencer who sells supplements who didn’t even support Donald Trump to be the US Surgeon General," she wrote in another post. "Who is doing the vetting?????"

"There is something rotten in the Trump vetting operation," she added in the thread.

Loomer has tagged the social media accounts of Trump, Vice President Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and multiple conservative influencers in various posts against the new surgeon general nominee.

Kennedy, in a post Thursday morning on X, championed Trump's nomination of Means, saying she "was born to hold this job."

"She will provide our country with ethical guidance, wisdom, and gold-standard medical advice even when it challenges popular orthodoxies. She will be a juggernaut against the ossified medical conventions that have helped make our people the sickest in the world at the highest cost per capita," he wrote. "Casey is a breath of fresh air, and we can’t wait for her to get started."

HHS spokesperson Kush Desai, in a statement shared with The Hill, echoed the Health chief's defense.

“Over 77 million Americans resoundingly re-elected President Trump to smash our country’s broken status quo and restore American Greatness – and that includes Making America Healthy Again," Desai said. "Dr. Casey Means has the ideal balance of elite credentials without the baggage of being beholden to a corrupt healthcare system that has profited from America’s chronic disease epidemic."

The White House didn't immediately respond to The Hill's request for comment.

Calley Means, the nominee's brother who works for HHS, defended his sister in an online post directed at Loomer, highlighting her background as a "Stanford educated physician" and her efforts "to inspire others to leave the medical system and reform it."

"She is the single best person in the world on connecting the dots behind our chronic diseases crisis — and her reason for existence is to help President reverse these trends," he wrote. "She worked to encourage [Kennedy] to support Trump and we went on Joe Rogan with the specific intention to convince undecided MAHA voters to support Trump."

Loomer has demonstrated her ability to influence top level White House staffing decisions in the past. She met with the president in the Oval Office a day before the administration fired multiple White House National Security Council staff members in early April.

The right-wing advocate has also faced backlash for entertaining 9/11 conspiracy theories and spreading anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim rhetoric. She traveled with Trump aboard his campaign jet last fall on trips to New York and Pennsylvania to mark the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Asked about her role in his political sphere last fall, Trump said, "Laura is a supporter. I don’t control Laura; she’s a free spirit.”

Updated at 11:23 a.m. EDT.