The president said that Dr. Casey Means is a โbrilliant woman.โ
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recommended that President Donald Trump nominate Dr. Casey Means as his surgeon general, the president said on May 8.
When asked why he nominated Means to the position, Trump told reporters at the White House that it was โbecause Bobby thought she was fantastic.โ
He added later: โI donโt know her. I listened to the recommendation of Bobby.โ
Means is a graduate of Stanford University Medical School. After dropping out of a surgeon residency, she founded Levels, an application designed to help Americans make better diet and lifestyle choices.
Trump, a day prior, said he was withdrawing his previous choice, Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, who is shifting to become the interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.
He said in a social media post that Means โhas impeccable โMAHAโ credentials,โ referring to the Make America Healthy Again movement, and would work closely with Kennedy โto ensure a successful implementation of our Agenda in order to reverse the Chronic Disease Epidemic, and ensure Great Health, in the future, for ALL Americans.โ
The choice of Means has drawn criticism from some, including for her not holding an active medical license. Means โis no longer seeing patients,โ her website states.
โTurns out you can be a social media influencer and become Surgeon General,โ Laura Loomer, an activist who recently met with Trump, wrote on social media platform X.
Trump told reporters that Means โis a brilliant woman who went through Stanfordโand as I understand it, she wanted to be an academic as opposed to a surgeon.โ
Means has not directly responded to her critics, but on X, she shared a number of posts that came to her defense, including several from Kennedy.
โThe attacks that Casey is unqualified because she left the medical system completely miss the point of what we are trying to accomplish with MAHA,โ the health secretary wrote in one post. โCasey is the perfect choice for Surgeon General precisely because she left the traditional medical systemโnot in spite of it. Her leadership has inspired many doctors to reform the system and forge a new path away from sick care, which fills corporate coffers, and toward health care, which enriches all of us.โ
Byย Zachary Stieber