A former White House staffer has accused “corrupt” Trump advisers of treating the president “like a baby” while attempting to curb Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again agenda.
Calley Means, who also worked as a senior aide to Health Secretary Kennedy, told CBS’s Margaret Brennan that he feared the president had been “subverted” by senior aides and strategists whom he claimed were influenced by special interests.
“I think he had severe poor advice from people who, in many respects, treated him like a baby and used him,” Means said on Sunday’s Face the Nation. He alleged that the aides “would block access to information to him all the time.”
Means singled out former Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, who is due to leave the powerful post on Monday to join Trump’s political operation. She will be succeeded by Stephen Miller.
Many of Means’ accusations echoed comments he made during a Friday interview with podcaster Joe Rogan, when he identified staffers he believed had blocked or slowed policies promoted by the Make America Healthy Again, or MAHA, movement.
Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson has urged Americans to listen to the podcast, describing it as a detailed account of what he called corruption within government and, “sad to say,” the Trump administration.
The allegations come as Democrats, who have regained majorities in both the House of Representatives and the US Senate, pledge to investigate claims of corruption inside the White House.
Several administration officials, however, have pushed back against Means’ allegations.
Former White House staffer Calley Means accused “corrupt” Trump advisers of treating the president “like a baby” while attempting to limit Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again agenda during an appearance on CBS News’ Face the Nation on Sunday
Means specifically criticized former Chief of Staff Susie Wiles
In a statement to the Washington Post, James Blair, Trump’s top political adviser, said he had only “minimal passing knowledge” of which donors supported particular organizations because he was not a fundraiser and had no role in fundraising.
“However, the implication of corruption towards me and all the others referenced by Calley is scurrilous, false and defamatory,” Blair said.
White House spokeswoman Allison Schuster also said Friday that the “MAHA coalition has found a champion in President Trump,” who she said had made significant progress toward making America healthier.
The MAHA movement emerged from the 2024 alliance between Kennedy and Trump. Its supporters advocate healthier food, sweeping changes to vaccine policy and reduced pesticide use.
During Sunday’s CBS interview, however, Means alleged that the food, pharmaceutical and pesticide industries exerted excessive influence over policy decisions—often, he said, without Trump’s full knowledge.
“Underneath Trump’s nose, in many cases, you had a group of former lobbyists catering to the vaping industry, the ultra-processed food industry, the pharmaceutical industry and the pesticide industry,” the former adviser claimed. He said they were advancing those industries’ interests while arguing that campaign funding was needed for the midterm elections, even when doing so conflicted with voters’ wishes.
“The issues that came from Susie’s world were not healthy food, were not cleaning up pesticides, were not these core issues that Bobby Kennedy ran on,” he added.
Means alleged that Wiles yielded to lobbyists who had hired her daughter and argued that the administration needed industry money for the midterm elections
Means, who left the Department of Health and Human Services two weeks ago, has previously alleged that companies employing Wiles’ daughter, Katie, for lobbying work received preferential treatment at the White House.
“If you’re a special interest and you want to get something done, the secret’s out. You pay Susie’s daughter,” he told Rogan, adding that the arrangement was openly discussed when a client was involved.
He also accused Wiles of taking a lenient approach toward the e-cigarette and kratom industries because of lobbying money.
“Unrelenting lobbying happened and this Susie world… huge pushing, huge, huge pushing, meetings pushing from the West Wing… to relax the standards,” Means said.
Asked Sunday whether he had sought Wiles’ removal, Means replied: “Yes. I think President Trump has been subverted by people who are beholden to special interests and not to what President Trump ran on and what voters voted for.”
He later called for the preservation of all records concerning Wiles’ influence over health policy.
“In light of suggestions that Susie Wiles and James Blair may pursue legal action over my Joe Rogan interview, I am publicly requesting that she… immediately preserve all potentially relevant records and communications,” Means wrote on X.
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Means requested Wiles’ communications concerning the sugar industry’s influence on federal nutrition policy, along with discussions involving GOP pollster Tony Fabrizio, food industry representatives and White House officials about MAHA initiatives, school nutrition standards and a proposed federal definition of ultra-processed foods.
He also sought drafts, internal correspondence, meeting notes and communications involving Kennedy, Walker Barrett and Heidi Overton, as well as records from Continental Strategy, the lobbying firm where Wiles’ daughter works.
Means also criticized GOP pollster Tony Fabrizio, pointing to his pharmaceutical industry clients
Heidi Overton, a senior White House Domestic Policy Council aide and Trump’s choice to lead the Food and Drug Administration, was also criticized by Means
Wiles was not the only White House official targeted by Means.
He also focused on Fabrizio, Trump’s chief pollster, citing the pharmaceutical companies listed among his clients.
“It’s a matter of record Tony Fabrizio is in the pocket of Big Pharma,” Means told the Washington Post. “Pfizer is listed on his website as a client.”
Fabrizio rejected the accusation, saying the claim that he was “in the pocket of Big Pharma” was “not only ridiculous, but demonstrably false.”
He said research by his firm had supported efforts to crack down on Big Pharma, impose Most Favored Nation prescription drug pricing and link US drug prices to lower costs abroad—policies he said would hurt the industry’s bottom line.
Overton, a senior aide on the White House Domestic Policy Council and Trump’s nominee to lead the Food and Drug Administration, was another target of Means’ criticism.
Means described her as the “biggest block to MAHA policies.”
White House spokesman Kush Desai previously defended Overton, saying she had helped deliver “almost every single MAHA victory that the Trump Administration has secured for the American people.”
James Blair, Trump’s top political adviser, said he told Means that voters were more focused on food prices during the election
Means also told Brennan that he had fully divested from the company he founded when he began serving as a special government employee last year, despite what he described as financial losses.
On Rogan’s podcast, Means expressed frustration that the midterm campaign had not focused more heavily on MAHA priorities, despite polls showing that most Americans believe chemical additives in food and pesticides are not sufficiently regulated.
Blair, however, told the Washington Post that the main food-related concern he had raised with Means was the high cost of groceries.
“The only thing I did tell Calley is that the number one food-related concern of the vast majority of voters right now is that food and groceries are too expensive,” Blair said. “It’s one of the voters’ top budget concerns in general.”
“He wasn’t interested in that,” Blair claimed.
President Trump announced Friday that Wiles would leave her position as chief of staff
Senior adviser Stephen Miller, pictured, is due to replace Wiles on Monday
Trump announced Wiles’ departure as chief of staff after Means’ interview with Rogan aired Friday. Wiles had submitted her resignation to the president the previous day.
Some administration officials have since portrayed Wiles as a supporter of MAHA. Kennedy wrote on social media Friday that he was “grateful to Susie Wiles for her calm and inspiring leadership and wisdom.”
Other MAHA supporters, including Means, welcomed Miller’s appointment and said he was committed to advancing the movement’s goals.
“Stephen Miller wants to get transformative things done with Bobby Kennedy and President Trump that are not partisan, but structural,” Means said.
Our News Outlet has contacted the White House for comment.
