A top adviser to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is stepping down.
Calley Means, who has worked on a range of Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) initiatives, did not disclose a reason for his resignation on Oct. 22, and said he has tremendous respect for both Kennedy and President Donald Trump.
“They laid out a vision of combatting the entrenched, dark forces in DC that profit from Americans getting sick. More policy and cultural change has happened around these goals in the past 2 years than any time in history—and I know this movement is just getting started,” Means wrote on X.
“It was an honor to advocate for MAHA moms in the administration and steer policies like Dietary Guidelines reform, psychedelic reform, removing soda from [food stamps], removing food dyes, GRAS reform, and overhauling government food procurement.”
Kennedy thanked Means for his time in the government in a post on X.
“You challenged the status quo and pushed Washington to confront the forces driving childhood chronic disease,” Kennedy said. “Your work has left an indelible mark. Thank you, President Trump and the White House team for championing the MAHA agenda and supporting our work to protect children’s health.”
Means, 41, founded a company called Truemed in 2022, which focused on letting people spend money from health savings accounts and similar tranches on health products, and later co-authored a book with his sister, Dr. Casey Means.
Early in Trump’s second term, Means was a special government employee, advising Kennedy and other officials. He joined the Department of Health and Human Services in late 2025 as a senior adviser.
Means has frequently spoken at press briefings and on social media about steps the Trump administration has taken to clean up food, including banning several synthetic dyes and pressuring companies to voluntarily remove others, and updating the food pyramid.
“History will remember the first two years of the Trump administration as the most significant food reform in modern history,” Means said at a briefing earlier this year.
Dr. Casey Means was selected by Trump with Kennedy’s backing to be surgeon general, another post in the Department of Health and Human Services, but withdrew after facing opposition in the Senate.
