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PBS News Hour - Segments

The background and career of Casey Means, Trump’s pick for surgeon general

PBS News Hour - Segments

PBS NewsHour

News, Daily News

4.11K Ratings

🗓️ 21 May 2025

⏱️ 7 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The White House is expected to release a report about potential contributing factors of childhood diseases. It’s leading to renewed questions about the “Make America Healthy Again” agenda championed by President Trump and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Another voice central to the movement is Dr. Casey Means, Trump’s pick for surgeon general. Ali Rogin looks at Means’ background. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders

Transcript

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0:00.0

The White House is expected to release a report tomorrow about potential contributing factors of childhood diseases.

0:07.7

It's leading to renewed questions about the so-called Make America Healthy Again or Maha agenda, championed by President Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

0:18.9

Another voice central to the Maha movement is Dr. Casey Means,

0:22.7

President Trump's new pick to serve as Surgeon General, after he withdrew his first nominee.

0:28.4

Ali Rogan takes a closer look at Means' background and policies she would push for, if confirmed.

0:34.5

Though she's been nominated by President Trump to be U.S. Surgeon General, Casey Means prefers to call herself a metabolic health evangelist, a physician-turned wellness influencer, with hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.

0:49.5

A hero of the so-called Maha movement, Make America Healthy Again, Means has close ties to

0:56.2

HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. She was a close advisor last year during his presidential

1:02.5

run.

1:03.4

In announcing her nomination, Mr. Trump said Casey has impeccable Maha credentials.

1:08.5

Bobby really thought she was great. I don't know her.

1:11.6

I listened to the recommendation of Bobby.

1:13.6

I met her yesterday and once before.

1:15.6

She's a very outstanding person, a great academic actually.

1:18.6

So I think she'll be great.

1:20.6

It's kind of the best part, right?

1:22.6

But Means has no government experience and is not a practicing doctor.

1:26.6

She did graduate from

1:28.6

Stanford Medical School in 2014 but dropped out of her residency program several

1:33.8

years later because she came to view the health care system as exploitative.

1:38.3

It's not an overstatement to say that I learned virtually nothing at Stanford Medical School

1:46.9

about the tens of thousands of scientific papers that elucidate these root causes of why American

...

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