--- title: MAHA Leader Calley Means Steps Down from Trump Administration Health Advisory Role description: Calley Means, one of the key figures in the Make America Healthy Again movement, championed food policies in his role in the Administration. canonical: https://time.com/article/2026/10/22/maha-leader-calley-means-steps-down-from-trump-administration-health-advisory-role/ author: Chantelle Lee article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2026-10-22T20:59:34.239Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-22T20:59:42.284Z article:section: Politics og:title: MAHA Leader Calley Means Steps Down from Trump Administration Health Advisory Role og:description: Calley Means, one of the key figures in the Make America Healthy Again movement, championed food policies in his role in the Administration. og:url: https://time.com/article/2026/10/22/maha-leader-calley-means-steps-down-from-trump-administration-health-advisory-role/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9132ffc1793cb530/6ada6c9ae9fce11aebf3ca70/Calley-Means-Resigns.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Calley-Means-Resigns.jpg og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: MAHA Leader Calley Means Steps Down from Trump Administration Health Advisory Role twitter:description: Calley Means, one of the key figures in the Make America Healthy Again movement, championed food policies in his role in the Administration. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9132ffc1793cb530/6ada6c9ae9fce11aebf3ca70/Calley-Means-Resigns.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # MAHA Leader Calley Means Steps Down from Trump Administration Health Advisory Role > Sponsored content. 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Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=8677a271-61ad-4d01-9cc6-8a2524b60283&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) by [Chantelle Lee](https://time.com/author/chantelle-lee/) ## Chantelle Lee Reporter Oct 22, 2026 8:59 PM UTC  Calley Means, senior advisor at Health and Human Services (HHS) and co-founder of TrueMed, at the Semafor World Economy Summit during the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank Spring meetings in Washington, D.C., on April 25, 2025. Calley Means, senior advisor at Health and Human Services (HHS) and co-founder of TrueMed, at the Semafor World Economy Summit during the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank Spring meetings in Washington, D.C., on April 25, 2025. Kent Nishimura—Bloomberg/Getty Images by [Chantelle Lee](https://time.com/author/chantelle-lee/) ## Chantelle Lee Reporter Oct 22, 2026 8:59 PM UTC Listen 00:001.0x01:50 Narrated by TIME AI. [Calley Means](https://time.com/collections/time100-health-2026/7362620/calley-means/), one of the key figures in the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement, said on Thursday that he was stepping down from his role as a senior health adviser in the Trump Administration. In a [post on X](https://x.com/calleymeans/status/2113320722919559349), Means said that he was resigning “with tremendous respect” for President Donald Trump and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “They laid out a vision of combatting the entrenched, dark forces in DC that profit from Americans getting sick,” Means said. “More policy and cultural change has happened around these goals in the past 2 years than any time in history—and I know this movement is just getting started.” News outlets including the [New York _Times_](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/22/us/politics/calley-means-resigns-rfk-trump.html)and [POLITICO](https://www.politico.com/news/2026/10/22/calley-means-top-maha-ally-resigns-from-trump-administration-01132073), citing anonymous sources with knowledge of the situation, have reported that Means was becoming increasingly frustrated because he felt that there was little movement on issues central to the MAHA agenda—for instance, on the issue of defining and regulating ultraprocessed foods. Means, who was pivotal in coordinating an alliance between Kennedy and Trump during the 2024 election cycle, has championed the Administration's food-policy agenda, including efforts to persuade manufacturers to stop using artificial food dyes in their products and to restrict the purchase of soda with Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits in some states. In his social media post, Means heralded those actions, as well as his efforts to reform dietary guidelines and his push for research into psychedelic medications. “It was an honor to advocate for MAHA moms in the administration,” Means said. Means is the latest figure in the Trump Administration, and specifically in the Department of Health and Human Services, to resign or be ousted from their role over the past year. In May, Dr. Marty Makary [stepped down](https://time.com/article/2026/05/12/fda-commissioner-marty-makary-resigns-trump-administration/) as the [head of the Food and Drug Administration](https://time.com/article/2026/05/12/fda-commissioner-marty-makary-resigns-trump-administration/) amid pressure from within and outside of the Trump Administration. Last year, the White House [fired](https://time.com/7312827/susan-monarez-cdc-director/) [Susan Monarez](https://time.com/collections/time100-health-2026/7362645/susan-monarez/) as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In April, Trump withdrew his nomination of MAHA leader [Dr. Casey Means](https://time.com/7284235/dr-casey-means-surgeon-general-nominee-trump/)—Calley Means’ sister—for the position of U.S. Surgeon General after the nomination failed to garner enough support in the Senate. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/10/22/maha-leader-calley-means-steps-down-from-trump-administration-health-advisory-role/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/10/22/maha-leader-calley-means-steps-down-from-trump-administration-health-advisory-role/"},"headline":"MAHA Leader Calley Means Steps Down from Trump Administration Health Advisory Role","datePublished":"2026-10-22T20:59:34.239Z","dateModified":"2026-10-22T20:59:42.284Z","description":"Calley Means, one of the key figures in the Make America Healthy Again movement, championed food policies in his role in the Administration.","url":"https://time.com/article/2026/10/22/maha-leader-calley-means-steps-down-from-trump-administration-health-advisory-role/","keywords":["Trump Administration","News Desk"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9132ffc1793cb530/6ada6c9ae9fce11aebf3ca70/Calley-Means-Resigns.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Chantelle Lee","jobTitle":"Reporter","url":"https://time.com/author/chantelle-lee/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9132ffc1793cb530/6ada6c9ae9fce11aebf3ca70/Calley-Means-Resigns.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Calley-Means-Resigns.jpg","caption":"","creditText":"Kent Nishimura—Bloomberg/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/trump-administration/","name":"Trump Administration"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/10/22/maha-leader-calley-means-steps-down-from-trump-administration-health-advisory-role/","name":"MAHA Leader Calley Means Steps Down from Trump Administration Health Advisory Role"}}]}] ```