A former Trump administration health policy adviser said several administration officials, including recently resigned White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, blocked Make America Healthy Again policies by prioritizing industry interests over public health.
Calley Means, a former senior White House adviser and top aide to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., said in interviews that former lobbyists inside the White House catered to the vaping, ultra-processed food, pharmaceutical and pesticide industries, citing the need for their money for the midterm elections.
He said he wanted Ms. Wiles removed, pointing to stalled efforts such as a federal definition of ultra-processed food and a push to approve fruit-flavored vapes.
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Ms. Wiles resigned Friday following sweeping Republican losses in the midterm elections and the same day Mr. Means’ interview with podcaster Joe Rogan was released. President Trump named Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller to replace her, effective Monday.
Mr. Means resigned from his position on Oct. 22 amid growing frustration over stalled food and health policy reforms within the Trump administration, including delays in defining ultra-processed foods.
He requested that Ms. Wiles and two lobbying firms preserve all “potentially relevant records and communications.
“In light of suggestions that Susie Wiles and James Blair may pursue legal action over my Joe Rogan interview, I am publicly requesting that she, Ballard Partners, Continental Strategy, and other relevant parties immediately preserve all potentially relevant records and communications,” he wrote Sunday on social media.
In his lengthy request, the communications he listed cover lobbying access, glyphosate and cancer litigation against Bayer-Monsanto, sugar-industry contributions and efforts to shape MAHA policies such as the proposed federal definition of ultra-processed foods.
Mr. Means said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that former lobbyists near Mr. Trump catered to the vaping, ultra-processed food, pharmaceutical and pesticide industries, citing the need for their money for the midterms.
He added that Ms. Wiles and “a very close-knit crew” of other White House advisers “were taking money from the industries we ran on fighting against.”
“I think President Trump has been subverted by people that are beholden to special interests and not what President Trump ran on, and what voters voted for,” Mr. Means said.
He said on Mr. Rogan’s podcast that Ms. Wiles told him directly, “I need the money from the sugar people to win the midterms.”
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