The MAGAverse is torn over President Donald Trump’s nominee for surgeon general.
A group of Trump diehards—led by conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer—have declared war on the president’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement, decrying nominee Dr. Casey Means as a “Marxist tree-hugger” who will have a pernicious influence in the administration.
Means, 37, is a fast-rising wellness influencer with, as Trump put it in announcing the pick Wednesday, “impeccable MAHA credentials” (such as a disdain for processed foods and skeptical eye toward traditional healthcare)—but no active medical license. Trump said she would work closely with MAHA’s kingpin, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who pushed for her nomination as early as November.
The MAHA wing of Trump’s base, along with the president’s most sycophantic supporters in the MAGA mediasphere, have been quick to sing Means’ praises.
MAGA podcaster Benny Johnson posted a video of Means “exposing the health industry and woke medical schools” and deemed her “the perfect pick.” Far-right activist Charlie Kirk concurred, boosting a clip of Means on conservative influencer Joe Rogan’s podcast. And Pro-Trump pundit Megyn Kelly called the selection “brilliant.”
This is your next surgeon general, Casey Means! Phenomenal pick by President Trump!!! https://t.co/cPrFUFIIDJ
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) May 7, 2025
However, a few MAGA heavyweights, like Loomer, have been—to put it lightly—less enthusiastic about Means’ nomination.
Since the announcement broke Wednesday night, Loomer’s X account has produced a stream of attacks on Means, targeting her MAGA credentials, her medical expertise, and even her sanity.
In one post, Loomer shared a screenshot of a newsletter written by Means in which she discussed her spirituality, which allegedly centers on praying to her ancestors, performing “full moon ceremonies,” and taking hallucinogens.
Loomer wrote that “basically the new Surgeon General is a total crack pot, a shroom consumer and she talks to trees and doesn’t even have an active medical license.”
“I guess there isn’t a single conservative doctor in America who doesn’t have a history being a Marxist tree hugger?” she said. “We are so doomed. Aren’t we?”
In another post, Loomer suggested that Means was representative of the MAHA movement’s rotten core.
“MAHA is literally being taken over by Marxists and Grifters,” she said. “Hardcore Marxists have forced their way into the admin. The entire MAHA movement is being taken over by Marxist Trump haters.”
Another emergent MAGA influencer has joined Loomer: Nicole Shanahan, the former Silicon Valley entrepreneur who was once RFK Jr.’s presidential running mate. She said she has long been trying to steer Kennedy away from Means and her brother, Calley Means, the other half of the health influencer duo.
“I was promised that if I supported RFK Jr. in his Senate confirmation that neither of these siblings would be working under HHS or in an appointment (and that people much more qualified would be),” she wrote on X Wednesday night. “I don’t know if RFK very clearly lied to me, or what is going on. It has been clear in recent conversations that he is reporting to someone regularly who is controlling his decisions (and it isn’t President Trump).”
She said that “there is something very artificial and aggressive about [the Means siblings], almost like they were bred and raised Manchurian assets.”
While Means herself has yet to speak out about the MAGA criticism of her nomination, her brother has taken up the mantle to defend his sister on social media.
Responding to one of Loomer’s attack posts, Calley Means touted his sibling’s resume.
“She is a Stanford-educated physician,” he said. “She completed 5 years of residency. She left the system to speak out—she wrote a book about this that sold 1.5 million copies to inspire others to leave the medical system and reform it. She is the single best person in the world on connecting the dots behind our chronic-diseases crisis—and her reason for existence is to help the President reverse these trends.”
She is a Stanford educated physician. She completed 5 years of residency. She left the system to speak out – she wrote a book about this that sold 1.5 million copies to inspire others to leave the medical system and reform it. She is the single best person in the world on… https://t.co/BKIVV8a7RK
— Calley Means (@calleymeans) May 8, 2025
Long operating at the fringes of even the far-right, Loomer is a 9/11 truther who once joined Trump on the campaign trail. She has displayed a penchant for attention-seeking behavior: In 2018, for instance, she handcuffed herself to the doors of Twitter’s New York City headquarters to protest being banned from the site.
Since Trump began his second term, Loomer has emerged as a relentless and influential opposition researcher not afraid to take the White House to task for what she says is a “vetting crisis” for the administration’s officials.
Her exposés have had massive ramifications. After Loomer met with Trump in the Oval Office in early April, he fired several members of his National Security Council at her urging. Less than a month later, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and his second-in-command, Alex Wong (a frequent Loomer target), were out, too.
Loomer may have even played a role in the ouster of Trump’s original nominee for surgeon general, who was booted on Wednesday in favor of Means.
In the days leading up to the nomination, Loomer had railed against Fox News contributor Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, taking issue, for one, with her support for the Covid vaccine. After Nesheiwat was cut, Loomer declared victory, boasting that she had claimed another “scalp.”
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