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Donald Trump nominated Casey Means, a wellness influencer and medical doctor with an inactive license for US surgeon general this week – his second nominee to serve as “the nation’s doctor”.
Trump abruptly withdrew his first nominee, Dr Janette Nesheiwat, before her Senate confirmation hearing, amid criticism from the right and confusion about her medical credentials.
His new nominee, Means, is a 37-year-old Los Angeles-based medical entrepreneur who shot to prominence in right-leaning wellness circles by criticizing mainstream medicine and advocating for a healthier food supply.
In a social media post, Trump said that Means “has impeccable ‘Maha’ credentials”.
Means’s nomination is a testament to the influence of health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr in the administration. Just a day after Trump nominated Means, he told reporters: “I don’t know her. I listened to the recommendation of Bobby.”
Kennedy is the figurehead of “Make America Health Again” (Maha), a loosely defined wellness movement embraced by the right alongside vaccine skepticism, new food politics and criticism of the medical establishment.
Means’s brother, self-described former food lobbyist Calley Means, already works for the administration. He serves as a senior adviser to Kennedy and as one of the secretary’s leading online mudslingers.
However, major hurdles remain for Means’s nomination – including her inactive medical license and criticism from the same rightwing forces that helped tank Trump’s first nominee.
“We should not toss out the window everything Casey is saying, but I would proceed with caution given her training,” said Prof Gabby Headrick, as assistant professor and director of nutrition programs at George Washington University’s Milken School of Public Health.
“Typically and historically, the person appointed to that role and confirmed is someone who has an active medical license, someone who has completed residency, and has held a leadership role in a medical institution. Casey Means does not have the resumé … She also is not trained in nutrition.”
Means also faces opposition from the far right. Activist Laura Loomer, who was critical of Trump’s first nominee, is skeptical of Means – calling her “unfit” for surgeon general and promoting events with Means’s critics.
Loomer previously described Nesheiwat as “a pro-Covid vaccine nepo appointee who is currently embroiled in a medical malpractice case”. Covid vaccines and the technology that underpins them have become a target of right-leaning politicians.
Similarly, anti-vaccine activists have sought to reassure the “medical freedom” base of Means’s bone fides. The anti-vaccine activist John Leake argued in a newsletter: “I have not seen any evidence that Casey Means is serving the vaccine cartel with her stated objective of scrutinizing the food supply.”
Means describes herself as a “medical doctor, New York Times bestselling author, tech entrepreneur … aspiring regenerative gardener, and outdoor enthusiast who lives in a state of awe for the miracle and mystery of existence and consciousness”.
She and her brother wrote a bestselling book called Good Energy: the Surprising Connection Between Metabolism and Limitless Health. The pair shot to fame on the political right around the time that Kennedy dropped out of the race and endorsed Trump. They began appearing at Maha events, on former Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s podcast, on The Joe Rogan Show and on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher.
Casey Means’s public statements about how Americans should be wary about microplastics and agricultural chemicals and the importance of organic produce could easily serve as liberal dinner-party chatter. They also show how Maha has adopted concerns once considered the dominion of the left.
“The thing that is so imperative for people to understand is that the reasons we’re having surgery, the reasons why we’re getting sick, the reasons American competitiveness is plummeting, the reasons why our kids are chronically ill … are all from preventable issues,” Means told Carlson.
Means has adopted more inflammatory aspects of Kennedy’s agenda – including questioning the value of vaccines and criticizing Ozempic, the blockbuster weight-loss drug.
“I bet that one vaccine probably isn’t causing autism. But what about the 20 that they’re getting before 18 months?” she said on Rogan’s podcast.
Nutrition experts such as Headrick have applauded Good Energy for its effort to elevate disease prevention. But Means ignores the “root causes” of chronic conditions, she says.
“Not once in this book does Casey Means point out that millions of Americans do not have access to a full-service grocery store,” said Headrick.
Means graduated from Stanford University in 2014 with a medical degree, and attended residency at Oregon Health & Science University the next year, but she left in 2018 before the five-year program finished. She said she left because she became disillusioned with medicine, while professors and former classmates said it was due to stress and anxiety, per the LA Times. Her medical license lapsed in 2024, according to the Oregon medical board.
By 2019, she and a few others founded Levels, a business based around selling continuous glucose monitors and a subscription health tracking app. The devices, once available only to diabetics, have become popular in the “bio-hacking” movement. Such apps also collect reams of data on their customers, a valuable asset.
“I am terrified about any company having this granular a look at my life and my medical information,” said Albert Fox Cahn, executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project.
“This should be someone committed to protecting [and] promoting public health, and I’m terrified to see this administration double down on its willingness to treat health as just another commodity.”
One of her co-founders is Sam Corcos, who has become a key figure in billionaire Elon Musk-led “department of government efficiency” inside the Internal Revenue Service. The unofficial department helped eliminate more than 280,000 federal workers, including nearly a quarter of the federal health workforce. The company’s backers have also included Trump advisers.
Similarly, Calley Means has also invested in health technology. He co-founded TrueMed, a business that helps people purchase wellness devices – including Levels glucose monitors – through taxpayer-subsidized health savings accounts (HSAs) and flexible spending accounts (FSAs). About one-in-five Americans has access to an HSA, according to the American Bankers Association. Republicans have proposed expanding the accounts for decades.
Although Means’s lack of a medical license would normally be disqualifying, health law experts said they would not rule out the administration attempting an end-run around the requirement.
“A medical license requires that the individual maintains her medical knowledge through mandatory continuing medical education,” Gostin told NPR. “She is not licensed and therefore should be ineligible to become surgeon general of the United States.”
