By Ahmed Aboulenein and Andrea Shalal
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump and his health chief Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are defending the new U.S. Surgeon General nominee from attacks from influential far-right activist Laura Loomer, whose critiques of some other Trump administration officials have preceded their ouster.
President Donald Trump on Wednesday nominated Casey Means, a physician, health entrepreneur and vocal proponent of Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” agenda, after abruptly withdrawing his nomination of Janette Nesheiwat a day before her Senate committee confirmation hearing.
Loomer is a prominent voice within Trump’s Make America Great Again movement and has claimed credit for influencing his personnel decisions in the past, including the dismissal of six members of his National Security Council. She called for Nesheiwat’s nomination to be withdrawn earlier this week.
On Thursday, Loomer described Means as a “terrible pick by President Trump” and a “MAHA grifter” on social media platform X, saying she was not a practicing physician and citing her writings on spiritual practices.
Trump on Thursday defended Means even as he tried to distance himself from her, saying he nominated her based on Kennedy’s recommendation and had only met her twice.
“Bobby thought she was fantastic,” Trump told reporters at the White House when asked about nominating a nonpracticing physician to the post. “I don’t know her… I met her yesterday and once before. She’s a very outstanding person, a great academic, actually. So, I think she’ll be great.”
Kennedy said Means, a longtime ally and prominent voice in his “Make America Healthy Again” movement, was the perfect choice for surgeon general because she had bucked the medical system.
“Casey has excelled in every endeavor she has undertaken. She was President of her Stanford undergrad class, was a standout at Stanford Medical School, and was a top performer in surgical residency,” Kennedy wrote on X. “She had the courage to leave traditional medicine because she realized her patients weren’t getting better.”
He blamed “badly entrenched interests–including Big Food and its industry-funded social media gurus” for the backlash.
Means, who could not be reached for comment Thursday night, reposted Kennedy’s comments.
Kennedy went on to defend Means in a Fox News interview on Thursday night and said the MAHA commission report Trump tasked him with would come next week.
Trump signed an executive order to establish a commission to “Make America Healthy Again,” during Kennedy’s swearing in ceremony on February 13 and tasked it with investigating chronic illness and delivering an action plan to fight childhood diseases, starting with a report due within 100 days.
(Reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein and Andrea Shalal; additional reporting by Susan Heavey; Editing by Michele Gershberg, Michael Perry and Chizu Nomiyama)
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