There is no shortage of stories about the revolving door of Donald Trump’s White House. His administrations have seen advisers depart, officials fall out and former insiders offer their versions of what happens behind closed doors. The latest account comes from Calley Means, who says some staffers treated the president more like a child than the head of the country.
Means made the claim during an appearance on CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday, where host Margaret Brennan asked him about the way Trump’s staff handled the president.
“I think he had severe poor advice from people, I think, who treated him like a baby in many respects,” the former adviser said.
Brennan pressed him on the comparison. “The president’s staff treated him like a baby?” she asked.
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“Of course!” Means replied. “They would block access to — and information to him all the time.”
According to Means, some staffers controlled what information reached Trump, leaving him with only brief explanations of complicated policy issues. He suggested that people around the president could use those short exchanges to get their preferred decisions approved.
“I would not be surprised at all, you know, if they had very short conversations on these issues,” he told Brennan, adding that Trump was “extremely busy.”
“And they used that,” Means continued. “It was all like, ‘The president wants this.’”
The former adviser was also unhappy with how some senior officials handled the Make America Healthy Again agenda, which he helped develop with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He accused people in Trump’s inner circle of putting corporate interests ahead of the promises the administration had made to voters.
Means named former chief of staff Susie Wiles, Richard Walters, Walker Barrett and James Blair among the officials he accused of catering to industries that MAHA had pledged to challenge.
“I think President Trump has been subverted by people that are beholden to special interests and not what President Trump ran on, and what voters voted for,” he told Brennan.
He went further, suggesting Trump was not fully aware of the relationships he was accusing his advisers of having with corporate interests.
“I don’t think President Trump fully knew that some of these advisors were taking money from the industries we ran on fighting against,” Means said.
His complaints cover industries including vaping, ultra-processed food, pharmaceuticals and pesticides. Means alleged that the need to raise money for the midterm elections was repeatedly used to justify decisions that went against the health agenda.
He had already aired some of these grievances during an appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast on Friday. Wiles was a particular target. Means described her as having a “stranglehold” on policy decisions and accused her of obstructing Kennedy’s work.
He also recalled her allegedly telling him: “We need money for the midterms, Calley. We need money for the midterms.”
One dispute he discussed involved flavored e-cigarettes and the tobacco industry’s efforts to challenge FDA restrictions. According to The New York Times, industry representatives met Trump at his golf club in Jupiter, Florida, and expressed dissatisfaction with the agency’s regulations.
Watch the full exchange below.
Featured image via YouTube screengrab
