A battle is brewing within the Make America Healthy Again movement and MAGA over President Trump’s pick to be the next United States surgeon general, Casey Means.

The running mate of the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., during his independent presidential bid, Nicole Shanahan, posted to X on Wednesday night about her grave disappointment — feelings of betrayal, even — in the nomination of Dr. Means. She also said that she believes “someone” — not Mr. Trump — is “controlling” Mr. Kennedy’s decisions in his new role as health and human services secretary.

“I was promised that if I supported RFK Jr. in his Senate confirmation that neither of these siblings would be working under HHS or in an appointment (and that people much more qualified would be),” Ms. Shanahan posted to X, referring to Dr. Means and her brother, Calley Means, a former government official who now calls himself a health care reform advocate and runs a company that helps customers use Health Savings Account funds to purchase wellness products.

A ‘Witch Doctor’

A right wing activist, Laura Loomer, who was instrumental in Mr. Trump’s decision to fire six National Security Council officials last month, is also speaking out, and tells The New York Sun she will be dropping more negative information about Dr. Means Thursday. Ms. Loomer, who associates with controversial far-right figures like Nick Fuentes and has said she thinks 9/11 was an “inside job,” plans to forward this research to Mr. Trump.

“There’s clearly a vetting crisis in the Trump administration. If their nomination of a woman who could arguably be called a witch doctor isn’t the straw that breaks the camel’s back, I don’t know what will,” Ms. Loomer tells the Sun. “They just appointed a woo-woo woman to be the United States Surgeon General.”

Ms. Shanahan also had choice words for Dr. Means, a Stanford-trained otolaryngologist — or ear, nose, and throat doctor — and head and neck surgeon, who dropped out in the last year and never completed her residency. Dr. Means calls herself a functional medicine doctor, but she does not have an active medical license.

“I don’t know if RFK very clearly lied to me, or what is going on. It has been clear in recent conversations that he is reporting to someone regularly who is controlling his decisions (and it isn’t President Trump),” Ms. Shanahan posted. “With regards to the siblings, there is something very artificial and aggressive about them, almost like they were bred and raised Manchurian assets.”

The Tucker Carlson Connection

Dr. Means rose to prominence in the MAHA movement after she and her brother appeared on Tucker Carlson’s show in August to promote Dr. Means’s best-selling book on wellness, “Good Energy.” In that interview, Dr. Means told Mr. Carlson that she left her surgical residency in the fifth year because she realized the field of medicine was “profiting off of patients getting sick” and she wanted to investigate and treat the root causes of illness instead.

Like Mr. Kennedy, Dr. Means is critical of the medical industry, processed foods, and seed oils. She founded a company called Levels that offers nondiabetic subscribers continuous glucose monitors to track health.

Dr. Means also promotes New Age-type healing practices. In a newsletter, she once wrote that she “prayed to photos of my ancestors,” worked with “a spiritual medium,” talked to trees, and “did full moon ceremonies” and “plant medicine experiences” — with a mushroom emoji, referencing psychedelic mushrooms — to find love in her 30s.

“I’m really looking forward to the livestreamed tarot readings and crystal energy chakra balances from the White House,” Ms. Loomer says. She calls Dr. Means’s nomination “a mockery of the profession of medicine, and it’s a mockery of science.”

Patients Over Profits

Dr. Means’s supporters say HHS and the surgeon general’s office need a leader who is focused on root health, nutrition, and the way the medical and pharmaceutical industries profit off sickness. They say this is why so many parents coalesced behind the alliance of Messrs. Kennedy and Trump and the MAHA movement.

“She is a brilliant pick for Surgeon General!” Megyn Kelly posted to X.

“Phenomenal pick by President Trump!!!” a co-founder of Turning Point USA, Charlie Kirk, posted to X.

Many MAHA supporters are happy that Mr. Trump sidelined his first choice for surgeon general, Janette Nesheiwat, because she made statements during the Covid pandemic in favor of masking and vaccinating children. Yet, to many of these hardline vaccine skeptics and medical freedom advocates, Dr. Means is also a weak choice. They also say her story about leaving her residency in the fifth year to pursue functional medicine needs more investigation.

“Casey Means as Surgeon General is some BULLSH*T. She didn’t fight alongside us during Covid, she knows nothing about autism, she was parachuted into the medical freedom movement to steer the conversation away from vaccines, likely CIA,” a fellow at the Brownstone Institute, Toby Rogers, posted to X.

‘Doc-in-a-Box’ Characters

A person who worked in a significant role in the Kennedy-Shanahan campaign tells the Sun the conflict between the Means siblings and Ms. Shanahan is not new, and that it’s more about qualifications than being personal. Ms. Shanahan put $20 million of her own money into the Kennedy campaign and stood by him when Mr. Kennedy dropped out of the race and endorsed Mr. Trump. Ms. Shanahan has an autistic daughter and wants an investigation into the role of vaccines in causing autism.

Ms. Shanahan posted cryptically in November, after Mr. Trump won the election: “There are two potential appointments that could be coming down the pike that would be a disaster for the people, our health, and the integrity of this administration. I am working very hard behind the scenes to make sure they don’t come to fruition.” This former Kennedy campaign staffer tells the Sun this post was in reference to the Means siblings.

The theory that Mr. Kennedy is being controlled by some outside entity or powerful person is not new and is being promulgated by mainly fringe characters on the far right. It started when Mr. Kennedy spoke out strongly in favor of Israel after the attacks of October 7, 2023. When Mr. Kennedy spoke mildly in favor of vaccination during a measles outbreak in Texas earlier this year, Candace Owens posted to X: “This is absolutely wild.” She then posted, “RFK Jr. is friends with Rabbi Shmuley. That’s all you really need to know.”

Ms. Loomer may associate with some controversial characters on the far right, but — to the dismay of some in the administration — she has the president’s ear. “I don’t think there is some grand conspiracy behind who’s controlling RFK. I think he’s just showing his true colors,” Ms. Loomer says. “It was only a matter of time before [Mr. Kennedy] started to bring on board a lot of these duplicitous, questionable, Doc-in-a-box characters who are Marxist in nature and don’t have a history of supporting sound, rational thought.”