President Donald Trump’s move to nominate Dr. Casey Means as surgeon general is dividing the “Make America Healthy Again” movement, fomenting turmoil in the community that helped propel him to a second term.
On Wednesday, the president withdrew Dr. Janette Nesheiwat as his pick for surgeon general. The withdrawal came after she was criticized by conservative activist Laura Loomer over concerns regarding her credentials. Means was tapped to fill her place, with her nomination likely stemming from the influence of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the architect of the MAHA movement.
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Means and her brother, Calley, served as advisers to Kennedy during his presidential campaign last year. At the height of his campaign challenging Trump and other contenders, Kennedy garnered support from 15% of the electorate.
After Kennedy dropped out of the race in August, the siblings, who were also connected to people in the Trump camp, were instrumental in setting up the alliance between the two men that gave momentum to the president’s bid for reelection and ultimately landed the MAHA leader a Cabinet spot leading the Department of Health and Human Services.
But while Casey Means is close to Kennedy, not everyone in MAHA circles cheered on the news that she could be made surgeon general.
Nicole Shanahan, who was Kennedy’s vice presidential running mate last year, expressed disdain for Casey Means and her brother on Thursday, calling them “artificial and aggressive.” Shanahan claimed she was promised Kennedy would never promote them for government jobs.
“Yes, it’s very strange. Doesn’t make any sense. I was promised that if I supported RFK Jr. in his Senate confirmation that neither of these siblings would be working under HHS or in an appointment,” she said in a post to X.
“I don’t know if RFK very clearly lied to me, or what is going on. It has been clear in recent conversations that he is reporting to someone regularly who is controlling his decisions (and it isn’t President Trump),” she added. “With regards to the siblings, there is something very artificial and aggressive about them, almost like they were bred and raised Manchurian assets.”
Loomer was among the critics who hopped on the bandwagon against Casey Means as quickly as she opposed her predecessor’s nomination. Loomer’s advocacy against Casey and Calley Means comes as she has been a key figure in stirring up infighting among MAHA figures, a fact she has celebrated.
“I’m glad I initiated the MAHA breakup,” she wrote on Wednesday. “Many of these grifters needed to be exposed for who they are.”
“The entire MAHA movement is being taken over by Marxist Trump haters,” Loomer wrote in another post Thursday, calling the matter a “full-fledged vetting crisis.”
Aside from expressing shock that the Means siblings’ father allegedly wrote a children’s book “encouraging children to be transgender,” Loomer’s railings against Casey Means include concerns that she recently started going by her middle name, that she “moved to Oregon to complete her residency but decided to drop out in the final year,” and claims that the surgeon general nominee “doesn’t even have an active medical license.”
Casey Means, a Stanford-educated doctor, dropped out of her residency at Oregon Health and Science University to “devote her life to tackling the root cause of why Americans are sick,” according to her personal website.
Loomer’s barrage of complaints against Casey and Calley Means comes after she similarly tore apart another major MAHA influencer, Substack journalist Jessica Reed Kraus, earlier this year.
Kraus recently wrote about the MAHA infighting in a Substack post, saying the shift against Kennedy has been “brutal.”
“The spin is always more gripping. Regardless of where it stems,” she said on April 29.
“That is exactly what’s happening with RFK. Watching the internal shift against him from within his own base has been brutal. While a few vocal supporters have turned, he hasn’t strayed. He’s still out there pushing for answers on autism, fighting to get toxins out of our food and water,” Kraus continued.
Loomer’s complaints against Kraus stem primarily from her coverage of Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving time in prison in connection to facilitating notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes against children. Kraus has argued that while she is not guiltless, Maxwell was targeted by deep state actors and government officials such as former Attorney General Bill Barr to an undue degree.
After Kraus wore a t-shirt saying “Free Ghislaine” on the front when the Trump administration released formerly classified documents surrounding the Epstein case, Loomer called the Substack journalist a “Democrat feminist cheerleader for pedophiles and child rapists.”
“People should be very cautious of Jessica Reed Kraus,” Loomer warned in March. “Can’t believe she is allowed in the White House with a pass after promoting Ghislaine Maxwell and using the gossip she gathers on politicians as leverage to gain access to their circles.”
RFK JR. ANNOUNCES STUDIES COMING ON LINKS BETWEEN AUTISM AND ENVIRONMENTAL TOXINS
Kraus has said that Loomer’s views are driven by a surface knowledge of Maxwell’s role in the Epstein drama and that “all of her theories are entirely based on misinformation and assumptions fueled by jealousy.”
“Her only motive is to slander people she doesn’t agree with based on whatever it takes to shred them. She’s become a cancer to the right,” Kraus said in an Instagram story, adding in another that Loomer’s “whole sense of identity is trashing ‘enemies’ online. Hoping the president will notice. She needs help.”