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Top RFK Jr. adviser Calley Means quits Trump administration

By Thomson Reuters Oct 22, 2026 | 12:25 PM

Oct 22 (Reuters) – Calley Means, a close aide to US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is resigning from his role as a senior adviser ​in the Trump administration, he said in a ‌post on X on Thursday.

Means, who has been particularly active in the Kennedy-led “Make America Healthy Again,” submitted his resignation to Kennedy on Wednesday, a source familiar with the situation told Reuters.

“It was an ‌honor ​to advocate for MAHA moms in ⁠the administration and steer ⁠policies like Dietary Guidelines reform, psychedelic reform, removing soda from SNAP, removing food dyes, GRAS reform, and overhauling government food procurement,” Means said in his post on ​X.

He added that he is resigning from the White House with “tremendous respect for President Trump and Bobby Kennedy.”

Means ⁠stepped into a permanent role as ⁠senior adviser supporting food and nutrition policy ​in November last year. Before that, he served as an ​adviser in the Trump White House from March to ‌October as a special government employee.

The Wall Street Journal, which first reported his resignation earlier on Thursday, said Means was significantly frustrated by White House delays of some ⁠of Kennedy’s most popular policy ideas and blamed others in the administration for allowing food companies and special interests to have ⁠too much sway, ‌citing people familiar with the matter.

The Department ⁠of Health and Human Services did not ​immediately ‌respond to a Reuters request for comment.

His ​sister, Casey ⁠Means, also a key ally of Health Secretary Kennedy, had her nomination for US surgeon general withdrawn by President Donald Trump earlier this year.

(Reporting by Christy Santhosh, Sneha S K in Bengaluru and Bo Erickson; Editing by Leroy Leo ​and Tasim Zahid)