Overview

• President Trump nominated Casey Means, a Stanford-educated doctor and wellness entrepreneur, as his second pick for Surgeon General after withdrawing Janette Nesheiwat's nomination last week.
• Means’s inactive medical license, incomplete residency, and lack of traditional leadership experience have drawn bipartisan criticism and scrutiny from public health experts.
• The nomination has exposed internal rifts within the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement, with some members questioning Means’s ideological alignment and qualifications.
• Prominent right-wing figures, including Laura Loomer and Suzanne Humphries, have voiced strong opposition, while Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has defended Means as a reformer challenging entrenched interests.
• Means co-founded the health-tech company Levels and has built a profile advocating for biohacking, nutrition, and alternative health approaches, which critics argue lack the depth required for the Surgeon General role.