Calley Means, who recently resigned as an adviser to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in the Trump administration, leveled accusations against Susie Wiles and other White House officials in interviews published on Friday. Means claimed that Wiles, whom Trump removed as White House chief of staff last week, and her team stalled implementation of the “Make America Healthy Again” agenda to accommodate special interest groups and generate campaign funds ahead of the midterm elections.
Means specifically named James Blair and Richard Walters, both deputy chiefs of staff; Walker Barrett, a policy adviser; and Tony Fabrizio, a Trump pollster, as having “explicitly catered to special interests against the will of the voters” according to his statements to CBS News. He alleged that the group declined to pursue certain health initiatives because doing so would alienate industries providing campaign contributions. Means cited sugar industry funding as an example and claimed the administration approved flavored e-cigarettes to appease special interests rather than based on policy merit.
Bliar denied the allegations, telling CBS News that he was tasked with aligning the Food and Drug Administration’s nicotine delivery device application process with federal law and did not specifically promote flavored vaping. He characterized Means’s claims as intentional misrepresentation driven by Means’s opposition to the administration’s smoking policies. Blair also threatened legal action against Means on social media.
Republicans faced significant losses in the recent midterm elections, with Democrats winning control of both chambers of Congress and numerous state offices. Means attributed some responsibility for these losses to the alleged deprioritization of the health agenda. Kennedy issued a statement reaffirming his support for Trump and the administration’s reform efforts, while the White House disputed the characterizations, stating it has “never allowed and will never allow outside groups to influence policy decisions.”
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