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The Trump administration’s nomination of Casey Means as U.S. Surgeon General has sparked backlash from the MAGA base. Many are questioning her credentials and family’s ties to progressive health policies that clash with the administration’s America First agenda.
At the center of the controversy are Casey Means’s medical credentials. State records show the state placed her medical license on inactive status in January 2024. This contradicts her claim that she voluntarily left conventional medicine, since she never formally surrendered the license.
Means also failed to complete her otolaryngology (ENT) surgical residency, reportedly dropping out just six months before finishing. She never earned board certification and cannot qualify unless she completes a residency. This is a serious shortcoming for someone nominated to be Surgeon General—a role that requires unquestionable clinical authority and public trust.
After quitting the program, Casey Means opened a functional medicine practice in Portland, Oregon, focusing on advocacy, entrepreneurship, and writing—such as her newsletter—rather than providing clinical care. Her website states that she “is no longer seeing patients and is not able to comment on specific medical conditions or provide any medical guidance.” However, in her social media, Means still refers to herself as “MD”, short for Medical Doctor. This raises an important question: how can someone without an active license or completed residency be trusted to shape public health policy for over 300 million Americans?
Additionally, questions have emerged over Means’s personal rebranding. Born Paula Means—and referred to as Dr. Paula Means in a U.S. News & World Report article—she began using her middle name, Casey, as she gained more prominence as a self proclaimed “wellness influencer” on social media.
Notably, old social media posts from 2021, uncovered under her former X handle “@DrCaseysKitchen,” reveal Means enthusiastically celebrating her COVID-19 vaccination—a position that starkly contrasts with the “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) movement she now aligns herself with. The MAHA movement gained political momentum during the Biden administration, as opposition mounted against federal and Democrat-led state vaccine mandates amid growing evidence of life threatening adverse side effects from the COVID jabs.
Casey Means has a well-documented history of medical unprofessionalism. In one of her ‘medical’ newsletters, she described engaging in rituals that sound more like witch doctor remedies than science-based medicine—using psilocybin mushrooms as “plant medicine,” praying to inanimate objects, making manifestations, having “visions,” participating in full moon ceremonies, and claiming to communicate with trees and spiritual mediums. For someone being considered for the role of our nation’s top doctor, these revelations raise serious concerns about her judgment, scientific credibility, and fitness to lead federal health policy.
Furthermore, Casey Means’s family has embraced woke medical ideology. Her father, Grady Means, wrote
It is also telling that HHS Security Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s endorsement of Casey Means has drawn sharp criticism from his own allies, including his former 2024 running mate, Nicole Shanahan. Shanahan
Casey Means’ lack of medical qualifications—paired with her embrace of woke medical ideology—underscores the Trump administration’s ongoing vetting crisis, which is now plaguing the medical sphere. Dr. Fauci and HHS officials inflicted lasting damage on public trust. Confirming someone as unserious and unqualified as Casey Means risks compounding that harm to national health policy. Unfortunately, this is yet another symptom of a larger vetting crisis.
