In four days, the White House chief of staff resigned, a former senior adviser accused her circle of selling out the health agenda, the most famous lobbyist in Florida put out a statement, and the Washington Post reported that Laura Loomer takes money for posts.
It’s a lot. Let me untangle it.
Who is Calley Means?
Most people met Calley Means in 2024. He and his sister, Dr. Casey Means, helped broker the deal that brought Robert F. Kennedy Jr. into Donald Trump’s coalition. Their book, Good Energy, was a bestseller. Calley co-founded Truemed, a company that helps people use pre-tax health accounts for food and exercise.
He went into government in 2025, first as a special government employee and adviser at HHS, then as a full-time senior adviser at the White House running “MAHA” (Make America Healthy Again) policy. Casey was nominated for Surgeon General. That nomination stalled in the Senate and was withdrawn in April.
On Oct. 22, Calley resigned. His post was gracious: he left “with tremendous respect for President Trump and Bobby Kennedy.” He listed his wins: new dietary guidelines, soda out of food stamps, food dyes, psychedelic reform.
The same day, the White House canceled a meeting he and Kennedy had set on a federal definition of ultra-processed food, Politico reported. Asked about Means, Trump said, “I don’t know him very well.”
Two weeks later he sat down with Joe Rogan and stopped being gracious.
Truth be told, I never ran into Calley in the Covid trenches, and I don’t know anyone in our immediate movement who did. It was a large movement, and he aligns pretty well but there’s a lot going on and I can’t say I’m comfortable with all of the drama in the open.
What happened, day by day
Tuesday, Nov. 3. Republicans lose the midterms badly, including the Senate.
Thursday, Nov. 5. Means tapes the Rogan episode. That night, Susie Wiles turns in her resignation, according to CBS. Three CBS sources tie it to the midterm losses. CNN says her resignation was in before the episode came out.
Friday, Nov. 6. The Rogan episode drops. Trump names Stephen Miller chief of staff, starting Monday, and says Wiles “has done an outstanding job.” Her deputy Richard Walters resigns too. Means posts: “Susie Wiles is out as chief of staff.” Kennedy posts that Miller is “the strongest MAHA supporter in the administration. It’s time to unleash the Kraken.”
What Means dropped on Rogan. For more than two hours, Means walked Joe Rogan through how he says the White House really ran. He called Wiles “the most powerful chief of staff in modern American history,” with a “stranglehold on any policy decision.” He said she told him “many times”: “We need money for the midterms, Calley.” When he pushed to limit sugar in kids’ diets, he says she told him, “I need the sugar industry money.” He said companies that hired her daughter’s lobbying firm got “a high priority.” He accused her team of protecting the weedkiller glyphosate, pushing fruit-flavored vapes and going easy on kratom, which he called “gas station heroin.” He also said they killed a federal definition of ultra-processed food after a food lobbyist told him, “I’m going to call Susie.” He spared Trump and Kennedy and said the staff did it behind their backs. Shortly after the episode went up, Trump announced Wiles was out. The two stories merged into one: the MAHA guy took down the chief of staff. CNN says her resignation was already in before the episode came out.
The names he named. Means put a small circle at the center of it:
Susie Wiles, the chief of staff.
James Blair, her deputy for political operations.
Richard Walters, another deputy, who Means says ran things while Wiles was in cancer treatment.
Walker Barrett, a policy aide, who Means says handed him the finished glyphosate order.
Heidi Overton, a White House policy aide now nominated to run the FDA.
Tony Fabrizio, Trump’s pollster.
Chris LaCivita, Trump’s 2024 campaign co-manager.
Outside the White House, he pointed to two lobbying firms: Ballard Partners, where Wiles used to work, and Continental Strategy, where her daughter Katie Wiles is a partner. He spared Trump and Kennedy.
Saturday, Nov. 7. Wiles’ deputy James Blair calls much of it “just false” and says he told Means he’d “consider suing him.” Means asks Wiles and Blair to “stop harassing me with texts and calls.”
The Loomer story. The Washington Post reported that Trump ally Laura Loomer has been paid for political posts. Bank records showed four payments totaling more than $60,000 to her and her company since May 2025. Two people told the Post the money was for posts. Loomer denies being paid to post: “My business is public affairs and opposition research.” The story doesn’t mention Means. Loomer went after him and his sister hard in 2025, and his allies now say those attacks were bought. No one has shown a payment tied to them.
Sunday, Nov. 8. Means goes on CBS’s Face the Nation. On X, he demands that Wiles, Ballard Partners and Continental Strategy preserve their records. Brian Ballard issues a statement. Wiles’ spokesperson calls the charges “outrageous, defamatory, and provably false.” The Democrat in line to chair House Oversight says, “We’re looking at this very case.”
Monday, Nov. 9. Miller takes over. Means posts that “Susie is executing a systematic strategy to throw President Trump under the bus.”
What Means alleged
The Rogan episode runs two hours and 18 minutes. Here is the short version.
Means says a small group around Wiles ran domestic policy and treated donor money as more important than voter promises. He names Wiles; her deputies James Blair and Walker Barrett; Richard Walters, who he says ran things while Wiles was in cancer treatment; and the pollster Tony Fabrizio. On Face the Nation he put it this way:
“Underneath Trump’s nose, in many cases, you had a group of former lobbyists, catering to the vaping industry, catering to the ultra-processed food industry, catering to the pharmaceutical industry, catering to the pesticide industry and doing their bidding with an excuse that we need their money for the midterms and really need to actually go against what voters said.”
His specific charges:
Glyphosate. The weedkiller in Roundup. He says the White House pushed an executive order to protect it and helped get a Bayer-friendly case to the Supreme Court, without Kennedy’s input.
Fruit-flavored vapes. He says Blair made vapes his top health issue and pushed out Makary for resisting.
Kratom and 7-OH, which he calls “gas station heroin.” He says Makary’s limit was loosened twentyfold after he left.
Sugar. He quotes Wiles telling him, “I need sugar money.” More broadly: “Susie said to me many times, ‘We need money for the midterms, Calley.’”
Ultra-processed food. He says a simple federal definition was agreed to, then killed after lobbyists from Coca-Cola and Mondelez threatened to call Wiles’ office.
Moderna’s mRNA flu shot. He says the FDA rejected it, then reversed after pressure, with FDA nominee Heidi Overton doing the pushing.
The lobbying web. He says companies that hired Ballard Partners, where Wiles used to work, or Continental Strategy, where her daughter Katie works, got priority.
He also says Trump didn’t know most of this. In his telling, the staff “treated him like a baby” and used quick yes-or-no moments with a busy president to claim “the president wants this.”
What’s on paper
Some of this is in the public record.
Ballard lobbied the White House for Bayer this year. Ballard Partners filed three 2026 lobbying reports for Bayer U.S. LLC, the maker of Roundup. Each lists the “White House Office” and names Brian Ballard as a lobbyist. The first-quarter fee was $90,000. The topic: “the importance of crop protection tools.” That’s the quarter Trump signed the glyphosate order (Feb. 18).
Ballard Partners’ lobbying report for Bayer, January through March 2026. Highlighted: the firm, the client, the quarter, the $90,000 fee, the “White House Office” and Brian Ballard. Source: Lobbying Disclosure Act filing, as posted by Calley Means on Nov. 9.
The glyphosate order happened, and Kennedy’s position moved. Trump signed it Feb. 18. The next day, Kennedy defended it to CNBC, saying it puts “America first where it matters most.” A week after that, Means, still working in the White House, called it “extremely disappointing” at a rally in Austin: “I’m not going to gaslight or sugarcoat it.” In March, Kennedy told Congress he was “very clear with the president about my own displeasure with the executive order.” He said it “came from the Pentagon” on national security grounds. In June, the Supreme Court sided with Monsanto, now part of Bayer, on Roundup liability.
The money, and the lunch. An affiliate of Reynolds American gave $5 million to MAGA Inc. on April 30, according to federal election records cited by CBS. Two days later, on May 2, Trump had lunch at his golf club in Jupiter, Fla., with executives from Reynolds and Altria and two Ballard lobbyists, Brian Ballard and Rich Haselwood. That’s according to the New York Times, citing three people briefed on it; CBS later confirmed the lunch. Trump interrupted the conversation to call Makary, then called Kennedy and Mehmet Oz, to complain about how the FDA regulated vapes. On May 8, the FDA issued guidance that could let big tobacco companies sell flavored vapes. On May 12, Makary resigned. The Times found “no definitive evidence” tying the guidance to the donation or the lobbying.
Makary says tobacco leaned on him. He told CBS this week: “Big tobacco exploited their connections to administration and HHS officials to put repeated pressure on me to approve fruit-flavored vapes that appeal to children—I wouldn’t do it.”
The firms boomed. Continental Strategy, Katie Wiles’ firm, reported $27.3 million in lobbying revenue in 2025, up from $1.8 million in 2024. Ballard Partners brought in nearly $82 million last year, the most of any firm in LegiStorm’s records.
The Moderna shot did flip. In February, the FDA refused to review Moderna’s mRNA flu vaccine. About a week later it reversed. The shot was approved in August for adults 50 and up.
The Balkans trip happened. In October, the New York Times reported that Blair and Chris LaCivita, Trump’s 2024 campaign co-manager, did paid work for a pro-Russian government in the Balkans. Trump wrote that if it was a conflict, “I will terminate them, immediately!”
What’s his word against theirs
Much of the rest rests on Means alone.
Wiles. Her spokesperson told Axios the charges are “outrageous, defamatory, and provably false.” She told CBS Trump “did more for MAHA than any president before or likely any president in the future.” She denied setting up the golf-course tobacco meeting.
Ballard. Brian Ballard says no one at his firm lobbied Wiles or anyone in the West Wing on the glyphosate order, and no one pushed the White House to allow fruit-flavored vapes. He says his firm’s work on vapes was against illegal Chinese vapes. “Mr. Means has publicly committed to correct and apologize for any factual error identified to him in writing,” he wrote. “This statement identifies two.”
Note what the filing does and doesn’t show. It shows Ballard lobbied “the White House Office” for Bayer. It doesn’t say who he met or what about. Means says that proves Ballard is “either lying or throwing President Trump under the bus.” It might. It also might mean exactly what Marc Caputo of Axios pointed out: Ballard was Trump’s own Florida lobbyist for a decade, a top fundraiser, and “Trump answers Ballard’s personal calls.” Ballard didn’t need Wiles to reach Trump.
Ballard made that point himself. When Means posted the Times’ account of the May 2 lunch, Ballard replied that it was “a meeting with POTUS, not with Susie Wiles or White House staff.” That’s probably true. Notice what it means, though. When the tobacco lobby wanted something, it didn’t go around the president. It went to lunch with him.
Continental. Speaking for Katie Wiles, the firm says it “never lobbied for glyphosate, Monsantos (SIC), Bayer, vapes, Kratom.” We searched the federal lobbying records and found no Continental work for Bayer or Monsanto. If you’ve heard that Wiles’ daughter lobbied for Bayer, that’s a mix-up. The Bayer lobbyist is Ballard but who knows what else is out there.
Blair. He says he pushed FDA to rule on nicotine applications within six months, as the law requires, not to promote fruit flavors. “I never argued vapes were a core midterm issue,” he wrote. And: “I’ve been called worse things by better people than you.” Privately he was blunter. The Wall Street Journal reported a text Blair sent Means: “If you are gonna try to knife me, I’m happy to return the favor.”
Fabrizio. Means told the Washington Post, “It’s a matter of record that Tony Fabrizio is in the pocket of big pharma.” The record part is his firm’s client list, which has included Pfizer and Pepsi. Fabrizio told the Post the charge is “not only ridiculous, but demonstrably false.”
The Balkans. Means says Wiles “clearly okayed” the trip. Wiles told CBS she didn’t know about Blair’s travel in advance. Blair says he didn’t tell her. Walters told CBS a third party told Wiles about LaCivita’s trip in advance.
Overton. A White House official told CBS the Supreme Court brief was written by the Solicitor General at the court’s request, and that Overton only made changes to “tone” late in the process. Her spokesman, on whether she’s qualified to run the FDA: “two former FDA commissioners think otherwise.”
The vaccine. An FDA official told CBS that trial deaths are in the public record, were “debated openly in June,” and that “The FDA does not have evidence of collusion or conspiracy.” On Rogan, Means himself hedged on the deaths: “it can’t be definitively said.”
The “sugar money” quote, Barrett and the food definition. No one else has backed these up on the record. Means says “senior administration officials” have called him with similar stories. None has gone public. One piece of the food story does check out: the White House did cancel the meeting on the definition the day he quit. Why it was canceled is his account.
Means is also careful in places, which helps him. On Blair and vape money, he told Rogan: “I’ve heard, I can’t substantiate this... He can deny that. I don’t know.” That’s honest. It’s also not proof.
The hard question for Means
Means’ theory needs Trump to be in the dark. That’s the weakest part.
Trump campaigned in 2024 on saving flavored vapes. He signed the glyphosate order himself. His super PAC took the Reynolds money. And when the tobacco lobby wanted a change in May, it didn’t sneak past him. It sat down with him, and he picked up the phone and called his FDA commissioner. Brennan pushed on this and Means held firm: “I don’t think President Trump ran, you know, as a primary purpose to help these industries.”
The same goes for Kennedy. He defended the glyphosate order the day after it was signed. He thanked Wiles on her way out. He picked Heidi Overton, the official Means blames most, to run the FDA. Robert Malone, a former member of the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee, asked this week how Kennedy could have missed what Means describes. The MAHA writer Toby Rogers went further and called the Rogan interview a “psyop.”
I don’t think it’s a psyop. But they have a point. “The staff did it behind his back” is the kind of story that lets everyone off the hook except the staff. It’s worth noticing that Means needs that frame. He still wants to work with Trump, Miller and Kennedy.
There’s also his own record. Brennan noted that congressional Democrats say he held $25 million to $50 million in Truemed stock through November 2025, while he was a special government employee. He says he fully divested when he went full-time. Democrats now run the House, and some want to ask him about it.
The Loomer sideshow
This is where it gets strange.
On Nov. 5, Trump adviser Alex Bruesewitz told Loomer on X: “I’ve paid you for tweets before. I haven’t for at least a year though.” On Nov. 7, the Washington Post reported bank records showing four payments totaling more than $60,000 to Loomer and her company since May 2025. Two people told the Post they were for political posts. Loomer denies being paid to post. “My business is public affairs and opposition research,” she told the Post.
Then Florida operative Jacob Engels posted that he had “personally paid” Loomer to post “earlier this year,” and offered receipts. Engels calls himself “Roger Stone’s #2 for 14 years.” To be clear: that’s Engels paying, by his own account. I found nothing showing Stone paid her.
Where does Means come in? Loomer went after both Means siblings hard in 2025. She called Casey’s spiritual writing “arguably witchcraft” and asked whether the two “recreationally use Psilocybin,” according to the Bulwark. Now MAHA allies say those attacks were bought. Dr. Mary Talley Bowden: “Loomer was paid to attack Casey Means.” Lauren Witzke says “they paid Laura Loomer” to call Calley a “fake MAHA grifter.”
Nobody has shown a payment tied to the Means attacks. Not the Post, not Bruesewitz, not Engels.
And this isn’t new. In May 2025, Means said he had “received information that Laura Loomer is taking money from industry to scuttle President Trump’s agenda.” He didn’t say what the information was. He dared her to sue and test it in discovery, the same dare he’s now making to Wiles and Blair. “These people have provided zero evidence,” Loomer said at the time. “I am not paid for my posts.”
So: there’s reporting that Loomer takes money for posts. There’s no evidence yet about who paid for which posts. Hold that line until someone shows a receipt.
Where LaCivita fits
Chris LaCivita made his name in 2004 as a strategist on the Swift Boat ads against John Kerry. He co-managed Trump’s 2024 campaign.
Means puts him in the circle. He says LaCivita is “getting paid a lot of money by special interests.” He says a firm tied to LaCivita’s family, Checkmate, boomed the same way Continental did. (On Rogan he called that relative a daughter, then a son.) LaCivita hasn’t responded that I could find.
Engels, for his part, wants Blair and LaCivita out “first.” He’s no Loomer fan either. Everyone in this fight is mad at someone else in this fight.
What it means
Here’s my read.
Means has a point about how Washington works. Lobbying firms close to whoever holds power make a fortune. Continental went from $1.8 million to $27.3 million in a year. Ballard lobbies the White House for Bayer. Reynolds wrote a $5 million check. Nobody needs a bribe when you can hire the chief of staff’s daughter’s firm, or the president’s old lobbyist. That’s legal. It’s also the thing MAHA voters thought they were voting against.
Means hasn’t proven the worst of it. The sugar quote, the food-definition call, the foreign-money approval and the vape money are his word. Some are hedged. Wiles, Blair, Ballard and Continental all deny them, in writing, with lawyers circling.
You don’t need a conspiracy to explain what happened to MAHA. Emily Kopp of the Daily Caller News Foundation has covered this beat as closely as anyone. On a podcast taped before Means went on Rogan, she said the White House moved away from MAHA “in a risk averse way.” On Makary’s exit: “I think they just wanted the negative headlines to go away.” Fear of bad press and the pull of donor money point the same direction. Means may be describing both.
Congress will ask. Rep. Robert Garcia, the Democrat in line to chair House Oversight, said Sunday: “We’re looking at this very case.” Republican Sen. Ron Johnson said Means laid it out “in gory detail.” Means has already asked Wiles, Ballard and Continental to preserve their records, Signal and WhatsApp messages included. If Blair or Wiles sues, discovery cuts both ways.
The live wire is Heidi Overton. Kennedy endorsed her. So did two former FDA commissioners, one of them Pfizer board member Scott Gottlieb. Means says she was “the biggest block to MAHA policies” in government. Her nomination to run the FDA is still pending. With Miller in charge and Democrats taking the House, that’s the fight to watch.
And Kennedy is quiet. He thanked Wiles on her way out and said, “I stand firmly behind President Trump.” He hasn’t backed Means’ charges. That tells you how hard this is.
We spent five years at Rational Ground documenting how COVID policy got made: who got in the room, who got the calls returned, who got overruled. This is the same question with a different industry. Means has given Congress a list of names and a list of documents to ask for. Let’s see what’s in them.
but bottom line, I’m uncomfortable with this much stuff flying around. I don’t think it’s useful, and I think it’s going to burn a lot of people that don’t deserve it. But the swamp is swampy, and this is just more evidence of that
Become a member at rationalground.com.
So much of the DC Swamp culture is the ability to be nice to someone in public and personally while at the same time stabbing them in the back and twisting the knife. They are all lying in some manner and none can be truly trusted