In late October, Calley Means resigned from his position as senior advisor to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. One of the architects of the Make America Healthy Again movement, Means has continued to praise both Kennedy and President Trump since his departure, but according to Politico and The New York Times, he stepped down out of frustration that the White House was siding with pesticide manufacturers, at odds with the movement’s priorities. It was just one sign that, two years into its alliance with Trump’s GOP, MAHA is going through an identity crisis. As The Wall Street Journal recently reported, MAHA-aligned donors and PACS have largely steered clear of the midterm elections.
By some criteria, MAHA has been a success. In just a few years, it went from being a minor dissident movement to having key allies in the White House and Congress. However, many now seem to feel disillusioned by the compromises that go along with being part of the establishment. A MAHA summit held in Washington in September provoked a backlash from grassroots activists appalled by the sponsorship of corporate giants like WalMart and UnitedHealth. None of this should surprise us. MAHA was destined to disappoint because of the political and philosophical contradictions at its core.