‘Concentrated Group Of People In White House’ Sold Out For Special Interests, Former Advisor Says

The advisor who broached the alliance between President Donald Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. expressed disappointment with remarkable candor in an interview on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast on Friday.

“There is a very concentrated group of people in the Trump administration that are antagonistic to what people voted for and, I think it’s very clear, are doing things for other reasons, particularly in many cases to enrich their families,” said former Kennedy advisor Calley Means. “The way this White House is set up, it has the most centralized control, up to the chief of staff’s office, of any administration in American history.”

“Susie Wiles is the most powerful chief of staff in modern American history,” he added. “There are entire cabinet meetings about how to get on the good side with her.”

Means helped set the stage for the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement that persuaded many voters who did not traditionally vote Republican to pull the lever for Trump.

The interview published within hours of the news breaking that former Chief of Staff Susie Wiles had resigned and that immigration advisor Stephen Miller would take her place following a rout by Democrats in the midterm election.

“After years of being on the political sidelines, the MAHA coalition has found a champion in President Trump, who has made incredible strides to Make America Healthy Again,” said White House spokeswomen Allison Schuster. “The Administration has already secured extensive victories for the MAHA Agenda, including overhauling the dietary guidelines for Americans, axing artificial ingredients in our food supply, and investing in regenerative farming. President Trump and Secretary Kennedy continue to work around the clock to deliver more wins for the American people.”

Means did not respond to a request for comment. Wiles could not be reached for comment.

Kennedy did not respond directly to the interview, but said in a post on X that he “stands firmly behind President Trump and the historic reforms we are advancing together” and touted recent reforms on nutrition policy.

Rogan, whose interview with Trump days before the election drew 63 million views, said the MAHA alliance was “one of the main things I was excited about with Trump getting into office.”

But Means said that policy changes from the Department of Health and Human Services were blocked by a White House too risk averse and beholden to corporate interests to advance them.

In the first Trump administration, the White House policy shop operated separately from the political fundraising apparatus. But according to Means, they were indistinguishable in his second administration.

“Day one, we made the midterm strategy the policy strategy. So she would often say that we can’t do certain things because that would hurt special interest configurations for the midterms,” he said.

The most important people across the federal government were not policy wonks devoted to conservative principles, but political operatives interested in fundraising for political ads.

Means named Wiles aides Tony Fabrizio, a pollster, political fundraisers James Blair and Chris LaCivita — all political operatives — as among the most powerful people in the country. Requests for comment to Fabrizio, Lee & Associates and MAGA Inc. PAC did not receive an immediate reply.

Fabrizio was simultaneously working with major companies like PepsiCo opposed to the Trump agenda. LaCavita too was getting paid by special interests while shaping the Trump agenda, Means said.

Wiles too had worked closely with lobbies.

“Before she joined the Trump administration, was one of the top lobbyists in the country,” Means said. “She spent her career taking money from Benjamin Netanyahu, who she was a top consultant for, the pharmaceutical industry, the pesticide industry,” he said.

“James Blair, who was the head of political operations, her friend from Florida and a long-term political consultant, has taken a lot of money from industries like the sugar industry, but that’s been his career, running some campaigns, taking money from special interests,” he continued.

“Tony Fabrizio is one of the most powerful people in the country. He’s Trump’s chief pollster, very good friends with Susie,” Means said. “He is on the outside the whole time and every single policy issue goes through him because he tells the team whether it’s politically appropriate to do or not based on his polling.”

Means noted that Fabrizio simultaneously did consulting work for private industries.

“As we were fighting things like school lunch reform and getting an ultraprocessed food definition … he is getting paid by Pepsi and giving political analysis that the juice isn’t worth the squeeze on doing policies like that,” Means said.

Means noted that Ballard Partners, Wiles’ former lobbying group, had shot up in revenue. The firm took in $19.3 million in 2024 then grew to $98 million in revenue in 2026, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

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