Ex-RFK Jr adviser accuses Wiles of throwing ‘Trump under the bus’

Calley Means, a former top adviser to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., accused former White House chief of staff Susie Wiles of trying to pin the blame on President Trump for controversial health policies he claims were influenced by corporate lobbyists.

Means, a key architect of the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement who resigned from the administration last month, alleged that Wiles and prominent lobbyist Brian Ballard were attempting to shield themselves from criticism by portraying Trump as the driving force behind decisions that Means claims were influenced by corporate lobbyists.

“I want everyone in the White House to know that Susie is executing a systematic strategy to throw President Trump under the bus,” Means wrote in a lengthy post on the social platform X on Monday.

In recent interviews with podcaster Joe Rogan and CBS News’s “Face the Nation,” Means accused top aides, including former deputy chief of staff Richard Walters and deputy chief of staff James Blair of catering to corporate interests when shaping policy.

Ballard, in a rare statement released Monday, refuted the claims and denied their firm’s involvement in lobbying the Oval Office following the interviews.

“I do not ordinarily respond to commentary about our firm,” the statement reads. “I am making an exception today because Calley Means has made specific claims about Ballard Partners that are false, and the record should be corrected.”

He continued, “No one at Ballard Partners lobbied or communicated with Susie Wiles or anyone in the West Wing, including her Deputy Chiefs of Staff, regarding the Administration’s executive order on glyphosate.”

Means refuted Ballard’s denial by pointing to a federal lobbying disclosure showing that Ballard Partners, the firm that previously employed Wiles, reported lobbying the White House on agricultural issues on behalf of Bayer, the company behind the widely litigated weedkiller Roundup.

Trump signed an executive order in February seeking to boost the production of the controversial herbicide glyphosate, a key ingredient used in Roundup. The order, which describes glyphosate as “a cornerstone of this Nation’s agricultural productivity and rural economy,” angered supporters of the MAHA movement.

The filing, covering the first three months of 2026, lists Brian Ballard among lobbyists who worked on the account and shows the firm received $90,000 from Bayer during that period.

“Brian Ballard said in writing he didn’t lobby Susie or White House staff on glyphosate. Since Ballard’s disclosure below said he personally lobbied the White House in the quarter of the EO’s release, he is either lying or throwing President Trump under the bus,” Means wrote.