- President Donald Trump nominated Dr. Casey Means as surgeon general, receiving endorsement from HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
- Kennedy's former running mate Nicole Shanahan publicly opposed the nomination, claiming Kennedy had promised her Means wouldn't work in HHS and alleging connections to "biometric harvesting" companies.
- Kennedy and Means' brother Calley defended the nomination over Shanahan's criticisms, suggesting opposition stems from entrenched interests fearful of health care reform.
President Donald Trump this week publicly nominated Dr. Casey Means as U.S. surgeon general in a Truth Social post, and the announcement has resulted in a MAHA movement blowup.
Surgeon general is the nation’s top public health position, and individuals in this role advise Americans on health issues, oversee the U.S. Public Health Service and work with disease prevention and health initiative teams, per the HHS.
Following Trump’s announcement, which cited Means’ “impeccable ‘MAHA’ credentials,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. endorsed Means.
“The Surgeon General is a symbol of moral authority who stands against the financial and institutional gravities that tend to corporatize medicine. Casey Means was born to hold this job,” Kennedy wrote.
Means received her undergraduate and medical degrees from Stanford University, and she began residency at Oregon Health & Science University in head-and-neck surgery, per Medical Economics.
However, Means dropped out in her fifth year due to “disillusionment with the medical system,” according to Politico. She has since advocated for functional medicine and co-founded the continuous glucose monitor company, Levels.
“She will be a juggernaut against the ossified medical conventions that have helped make our people the sickest in the world at the highest cost per capita,” Kennedy said in his endorsement.
RFK’s former running mate blasts the choice on X
Several hours after the endorsement, Kennedy’s presidential running mate Nicole Shanahan said Kennedy’s endorsement didn’t “make any sense,” in an X post.
Shanahan claimed Kennedy had promised her neither Means nor her brother Calley Means would be working in the HHS if she supported his Senate confirmation.
“I don’t know if RFK very clearly lied to me, or what is going on,” she wrote. “It has been clear in recent conversations that he is reporting to someone regularly who is controlling his decisions (and it isn’t President Trump).”
Shanahan brings her concerns to Glenn Beck
Glenn Beck spoke to Shanahan on his show Thursday, and asked about her recent comments.
The MAHA movement “is about listening to the group of doctors that did the right thing during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Shanahan told Beck.
Shanahan alleged Means’ medical company does biometric harvesting. “She’s very close with many of the Big Data biometric harvesting companies in Silicon Valley. And I know several of these people, and you do not want them in a government position that is responsible for everybody equally,” she said.
However, Shanahan added that she is pleased with some of what the HHS has done since Kennedy began serving as secretary, especially with appointing Jay Bhattacharya to serve as director of the National Institute of Health.
Kennedy and brother defend Means on X the next day
In a Thursday morning X post, Kennedy responded indirectly to Shanahan, saying, the “attacks” reveal “just how far off course our healthcare conversations have veered, and how badly entrenched interests — including Big Food and its industry-funded social media gurus — are terrified of change.”
Kennedy defended Means’ medical accomplishments, adding, “I have little doubt that these companies and their conflicted media outlets will continue to pay bloggers and other social media influencers to weaponize innuendo to slander and vilify Casey, the same way they try to defame me and President Trump. But it will not work.”
Early Friday morning, Means’ brother, Calley, directly addressed Shanahan in an X post, claiming tension between he, his sister and Shanahan began when Kennedy endorsed Trump in August 2024.
“The only substantive conversation I have had with Nicole was the day of Bobby Kennedy’s endorsement of President Trump,” Calley wrote.
“Nicole was saying she refused to endorse the President, and I called her and her husband to say that was destructive to the cause of children’s health… that President Trump is a unique figure who has the courage to stand up to corrupt interests, and the endorsement would change the world."
Calley added that Shanahan’s criticism about Means does “not contain a single substantive claim.”