A former White House staffer hit out at the ‘corrupt’ Trump advisors he said treated the president ‘like a baby’ as they tried to stifle RFK’s MAHA agenda.
Calley Means, who also served as a top aide to Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, told CBS’s Margaret Brennan he was concerned the commander-in-chief ‘has been subverted’ by his top aides and strategists he claimed were taking money from special interests.
‘I think he had severe poor advice from people, I think, who treated him like a baby in many respects and used him,’ Means said on Sunday’s Face The Nation, claiming that the aides ‘would block access to information to him all the time.’
He took specific aim at the now-ousted Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, who is set to vacate her powerful position on Monday for a job in Trump’s political operation. She will be replaced by Stephen Miller.
Many of Means’ remarks echoed those he made in an interview Friday with podcaster Joe Rogan, in which he named staffers he believed blocked or hindered progress on policies touted by the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement.
Sen. Ron Johnson, of Wisconsin, has since urged Americans to listen to the podcast and hear what the senator called ‘the corruption that Calley Means lays out in gory detail in government, I’m sad to say within the Trump administration.’
The comments come as Democrats, who have regained the majority in both the House of Representatives and the US Senate, vow to probe allegations of corruption within the White House.
But many within the administration are now fighting back against the claims.
Calley Means, a former White House staffer, hit out at the ‘corrupt’ Trump advisors he said treated the president ‘like a baby’ as they tried to stifle RFK’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) agenda on CBS News’ Face the Nation on Sunday
Means took specific aim at the now-ousted Chief of Staff Susie Wiles
In a statement to the Washington Post, James Blair, Trump’s top political adviser, said he ‘couldn’t tell you who donors are to what organizations other than minimal passing knowledge, because I am not a fundraiser and have no role in fundraising.
‘However, the implication of corruption towards me and all the others referenced by Calley is scurrilous, false and defamatory.’
On Friday, White House spokeswoman Allison Schuster also said that the ‘MAHA coalition has found a champion in President Trump who has made incredible strides to Make America Healthy Again.’
The MAHA movement was born out of the 2024 alliance between Kennedy and Trump, and the movement comprises advocates pushing for healthier food, major changes to vaccine policy and a limited use of pesticides.
But in the CBS interview on Sunday, Means alleged the food, pharmaceutical and pesticide industries had an undue influence on policy matters – much of which he said he believed ‘happened without Trump’s full knowledge.’
‘Underneath Trump’s nose, in many cases, you had a group of former lobbyists, catering to the vaping industry, catering to the ultra-processed food industry, catering to the pharmaceutical industry, catering to the pesticide industry and doing their bidding with an excuse that we need their money for the midterms and really need to actually go against what voters said,’ the former advisor claimed.
‘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.’
Means claimed Wiles would bow to lobbyists that hired her daughter and that she argued that they needed money from different industries for the midterm elections
Means, who departed the Department of Health and Human Services two weeks ago, has previously alleged that companies willing to hire Wiles’ daughter, Katie, for lobbyist work would get preferential treatment in 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, and it was openly discussed when they had a client,’ he told Rogan.
He also accused Wiles of being soft on the e-cigarette and the kratom industries due to lobbyist cash.
‘Unrelenting lobbying happened and this Susie world… huge pushing, huge, huge pushing, meetings pushing from the West Wing… to relax the standards,’ he said.
When Means was then asked on Sunday whether it was his intention to get Wiles removed from her position, he replied: ‘Yes. I think President Trump has been subverted by people that are beholden to special interests and not what President Trump ran on and what voters voted for.’
He later requested that all of the records related to Wiles’ health policy influence be preserved.
‘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,’ he posted on X.
Means specifically asked for Wiles’ communications regarding the sugar industry’s impact on federal nutrition as well as her discussions with GOP pollster Tony Fabrizio, food industry representatives and White House officials about MAHA initiatives, school nutrition standards and the proposed federal definition of ultra-processed foods.
He also listed drafts, internal correspondence, meeting notes and communications involving health officials such as Kennedy, Walker Barrett and Heidi Overton, and concluded his list by requesting records from Continental Strategy – the lobbying firm Wiles’ daughter works for.
Means also hit out at Tony Fabrizio, a GOP pollster, highlighting his pharmaceutical clients
Heidi Overton, a top aide at the White House Domestic Policy Council, who is Trump’s pick to lead the Food and Drug Administration, also earned Means’ wrath
But Wiles was not the only White House official Means lashed out at.
He also mentioned Fabrizio, Trump’s chief pollster, highlighting his pharmaceutical 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 denied the claims, saying in a statement that the ‘allegations that I am in the pocket of Big Pharma [are] not only ridiculous, but demonstrably false.’
He instead said the findings from his firm’s research have supported ‘cracking down on Big Pharma and imposing Most Favored Nation prescription drug pricing’ as well as campaigning on the issue of linking US drug prices to lower costs abroad ‘which would harm Big Pharma’s bottom line.’
Another official that earned Means’ wrath was Overton, a top aide at the White House Domestic Policy Council, who is Trump’s pick to lead the Food and Drug Administration.
He called her the ‘biggest block to MAHA policies.’
But White House spokesman Kush Desai previously defended Overton and said she helped ‘deliver on almost every single MAHA victory that the Trump Administration has secured for the American people.’
James Blair, Trump’s top political adviser, said he tried to explain to Means that voters were more concerned about the price of food this election
Meanwhile, Means told Brennan on Sunday he fully divested from the company he founded when he started serving as a special government employee last year ‘against my economic interests.’
And on Rogan’s podcast, Means lamented a lack of midterm focus on issues central to the MAHA movement even though polls have shown the majority of Americans agree there is insufficient regulation of chemical additives in food and pesticides.
Blair, however, told the Washington Post: ‘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. It’s one of the voters’ top budget concerns in general.
‘He wasn’t interested in that,’ Blair claimed.
President Trump announced on Friday that Wiles was out as chief of staff
Wiles is set to be replaced on Monday by Senior Advisor Stephen Miller (pictured)
After Means’ interview with Rogan aired on Friday, Trump announced that Wiles was out as chief of staff. She had submitted her resignation to the president the day before.
Some White House officials have since said Wiles was a MAHA champion, with Kennedy posting on social media on Friday he was ‘grateful to Susie Wiles for her calm and inspiring leadership and wisdom.’
But other MAHA supporters, like Means, cheered Miller’s appointment, saying he is committed to the movement’s cause.
‘Stephen Miller wants to get transformative things done with Bobby Kennedy and President Trump that are not partisan, but structural,’ he said.
The Daily Mail has reached out to the White House for comment.
