Calley Means rose from relative obscurity to a key role in the Trump Administration, helping U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to craft and coordinate an overhaul of the American diet and food system.
Means is an influential figure in the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement who played a key role in brokering the alliance between Kennedy and President Trump. In his 2024 book, Good Energy, Means and his sister, Dr. Casey Means, whom President Trump nominated to be U.S. Surgeon General, argued that the food and pharmaceutical industries are incentivized to keep people sick, and highlighted the power of diet and exercise changes to transform health.
In 2025, Means, now a senior adviser in the health department, helped coordinate two federal reports, which asserted that poor diet and “overmedicalization” were driving a chronic-health crisis among children. He was also involved in creating the new U.S. dietary guidelines released in January, which feature an overhauled food pyramid and encourage people to eat more protein, less sugar, and fewer highly processed foods.