Exclusive: The entrepreneurs behind GOP's 'Make America Healthy Again' campaign

Exclusive

With boost from RFK Jr. and Tucker Carlson, two chronic disease entrepreneurs vault into Trump's orbit

By Isabella Cueto

Illustration: Anna Yeo/STAT; Photos: Emrich, Getty, AP

Buzzing in the same orbit as Tucker Carlson, Joe Rogan, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and even former President Donald Trump, siblings Calley and Casey Means are striving to build a new, "Make America Healthy Again" identity for the GOP ahead of the election.

The two have sweeping proposals: barring ultra-processed foods from SNAP, cutting federal research funding to scientists with conflicts of interest, an immediate end to direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising, plus having taxpayers cover the 45% of FDA's budget that comes from pharma companies, and splitting food and drug oversight into separate agencies.

It's unclear just how many of these ideas have actually made a convert of Trump. Many decisions he made as president directly contradict policies pushed by Kennedy and the Meanses. But according to an exclusive interview with Calley Means, Trump now sees fixing the American chronic disease epidemic as a "legacy item."