Calley Means, a senior adviser to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and one of the most visible architects of the Make America Healthy Again movement, resigned from the Trump administration on Thursday. Means said in his public statement that he was leaving with respect for both President Donald Trump and Kennedy, but he did not explain why he was stepping down.
A Quiet Exit With No Public Explanation
Means announced his departure in a post on X, writing that he was resigning from the White House with tremendous respect for President Trump and RFK, according to NBC News. He added that he was proud of the work he had done in the administration, as Politico reported. The White House did not immediately return a request for comment, per the same Politico account.
Means joined the administration early last year as a special government employee before becoming a full-time senior adviser at HHS, a move he made after divesting from Truemed, the company he founded that lets people use tax-advantaged FSA and HSA funds on health and wellness products, according to NBC News. During his tenure he pointed to a string of MAHA-aligned wins, including restricting soda purchases through SNAP, revised dietary guidelines, a voluntary phaseout of certain food dyes, and federal support for psychedelic medicine research.
Frustration Over a Stalled Food Definition
Behind the polite public statement, administration officials told Politico that Means had grown frustrated by a lack of progress on MAHA priorities. A person familiar with his decision told NBC News he had been growing increasingly frustrated as he realized how little he could get done in Washington, and that same source described the lack of progress on a federal definition of ultraprocessed food as the final straw. Means had spent months working to create that definition, one of his biggest priorities, though the administration had teased the definition back in August without ever releasing it, as the same NBC News report noted.
Reports from the Wall Street Journal and Politico, cited by Agri-Pulse, said Means was greatly frustrated with the influence food companies and special interests held within the administration. The definition also faced food-industry opposition, with potential lawsuits, costs and business impacts among the concerns.
Strain Inside the Broader MAHA Coalition
Means’s exit lands amid wider grumbling from MAHA supporters, some of whom have accused the administration of breaking nearly every promise made to them on food, agriculture and environmental health, per NBC News. The outlet also reported that the administration’s EPA weakened mercury emissions standards and rolled back drinking-water limits for certain PFAS chemicals, moves that drew opposition from much of the MAHA movement. Bloomberg characterized Means’s resignation as a setback to the administration’s broader effort to overhaul the U.S. food system.
Means has long been one of the more influential voices translating MAHA ideas into policy access. The Washington Post reported that he helped arrange a call between Kennedy and Trump shortly after Trump survived an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, a call that contributed to Kennedy’s endorsement of Trump during the 2024 campaign. Means co-wrote the 2024 book Good Energy: The Surprising Connection Between Metabolism and Limitless Health with his sister, Casey Means, according to STAT. Casey Means was later nominated for surgeon general, but she did not secure enough support for confirmation. Her lack of an active medical license drew scrutiny, the same STAT report noted.
The resignation, first reported by The Wall Street Journal and also reported by WOAI, comes just weeks before the midterm elections, a timing that has drawn attention given Republicans’ efforts to appeal to MAHA voters. HHS and the FDA had earlier announced measures aimed at phasing out petroleum-based synthetic dyes from the food supply, with companies like Nestlé and Conagra pledging phased removals of those colors from their product lines, according to the FDA. Whether that broader food-reform push can continue to move forward without one of its most prominent internal advocates remains an open question.
