Calley Means, top RFK Jr. adviser, quits Trump administration

Calley Means, a senior adviser to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and an outspoken advocate for the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement, resigned from the Trump administration Thursday, reportedly amid frustrations over delays in the MAHA food agenda.

Means’s departure less than two weeks before the midterm elections comes amid growing frustration between grassroots MAHA activists and the Trump administration.

The MAHA base has been increasingly frustrated by the administration’s approach to its core policy goals — like eliminating pesticides and chemicals in the food supply, encouraging healthy eating by reducing reliance on ultraprocessed foods, and changing the nation’s vaccination policies.

The White House and HHS did not respond to a request for comment.

While there have been some smaller MAHA wins, many of the movement’s big priorities have been stymied by an administration and Congress that continue to hew to traditional GOP priorities.

“I am resigning from the White House with tremendous respect for President Trump and Bobby Kennedy,” Means wrote in a statement on the social platform X .

“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.

Means mentioned some of the MAHA victories, like changing the food pyramid and reforming dietary guidelines, promoting psychedelic medicine , removing soda from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and GRAS reform .