An influential — and controversial –adviser to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. flew off the handle at a White House meeting, accusing the administration of interfering with his job.
RFK Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) agenda is running into a wall inside Donald Trump’s White House, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. Two years ago, the Trump campaign “joined forces with Kennedy,” embracing his war on chronic disease. But doubts about whether his food policies “are even feasible have sparked clashes inside the administration,” clouding an agenda that once drew support from millions of voters.
At a July meeting convened by senior White House officials, tensions boiled over.
On the table was a definition of “ultraprocessed food” — a wonky but pivotal piece of Kennedy’s plan to overhaul the U.S. food supply — and whether it needed another round of White House review. Health officials wanted foods containing ingredients like artificial colors, nonnutritive sweeteners or chemical preservatives to count as ultraprocessed, with exemptions, according to people familiar with the matter and a document reviewed by the Journal.
White House staffers worried the definition would sweep in most grocery store products and bolster ongoing lawsuits against food companies over health outcomes.
Calley Means, one of Kennedy’s top aides, yelled at the White House officials, accusing them of blocking the definition to protect special interests, and insisting “it wasn’t open for further debate” — noting HHS had already spent months vetting it with scientists. White House officials countered that the definition could be exploited by plaintiffs’ lawyers and cited its “potential fallout for the food industry and trade agreements.”
Means, who like Kennedy has no academic background in medicine, is the brother of Casey Means, who was nominated by Trump to be surgeon general, only to have her name withdrawn.
The infighting has stalled three separate efforts to curb Americans’ reliance on ultraprocessed foods, a cornerstone of Kennedy’s agenda. Means has pushed an expansive rollout of MAHA policies, arguing the administration owes its results to supporters — but officials have increasingly “viewed him as overly aggressive and unwilling to compromise” on policies they see as unworkable, the Journal reported.
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