MAHA leader resigns from administration

Calley Means , a top adviser to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and a leader in the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement, resigned from the Trump administration Thursday, less than two weeks before the midterm elections.

© Kent Nishimura, Bloomberg via Getty Images

His departure signals a further divide of the unique coalition that helped propel President Trump to the White House.

Means said he is resigning “with tremendous respect for President Trump and Bobby Kennedy.”

Means helped lead Health and Human Services initiatives around food policy , including an effort to change how companies disclose chemicals in food, remove artificial food dyes and ban soda and sugary drinks from the SNAP federal food assistance program.

Means was widely credited with introducing Trump and Kennedy , leading to Kennedy suspending his own presidential campaign and endorsing Trump.

But Means was reportedly growing disillusioned with the administration, frustrated over delays in implementing key pieces of the MAHA food agenda.

For instance, the White House over the summer teased a major announcement about defining ultra-processed foods, but that has yet to come to fruition amid major pushback from industry groups.

The MAHA base is increasingly at odds about the administration’s relationship to their core policy goals — eliminating pesticides and chemicals in the food supply and encouraging healthy eating by reducing reliance on ultra-processed foods.

A coalition of MAHA activists released a “scorecard” earlier this month, claiming the administration broke 85 percent of its promises to restrict pesticide use, promote healthier foods and break up special interests in Washington.

In a post on the social platform X, Means said that Kennedy and Trump “laid out a vision of combatting the entrenched, dark forces in DC that profit from Americans getting sick,” and have made significant progress in the past two years.

“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,” he wrote.

Allison Schuster, a White House spokeswoman, said in an email: “We are grateful for Calley Means’ time in the Trump Administration. He has done a fantastic job for the MAHA movement.”

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