Many of the high-profile business conferences that take place in downtown Washington, DC, make stops at the Willard InterContinental Hotel’s lavish ballroom.
However, on a particular morning, a diverse assortment of newcomers from out of town mixed amid the marble columns. Attendees at the formal opening of the MAHA Institute—the most recent iteration of the Make America Healthy Again movement—included food influencers, organic farmers, and anti-vaccine activists. The institute has emerged as a prominent figure in Washington during the second Trump administration.
Vaccine exemptions, medical freedom, school meals, and chronic disease were the main topics of discussion among the speakers. Local product is important, but farmers also talked about the hazards of chemtrails. A group of university students proposed a health-related business model based on the value of “touching grass.”
From his platform, White House advisor and former ally of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Calley Means, pointed out the strangeness of associating MAHA with MAGA, the movement founded by Donald Trump.
Voting for President Trump would have been considered foolish by many in this room and many organizations four to eight years ago, according to Means. I believe that many of those same individuals in 2024 saw their vote for President Trump to be the most consequential decision of their lives.
Kennedy, who has been secretary of health and human services for over three months, has finally assembled his leadership team, which includes several self-proclaimed “renegades” and other Covid-19 contrarians, thanks to Trump’s appointment. Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and their combined efforts have started a huge purge of the nearly $3 trillion agency, cutting medical research to the bone and sending many of the government’s most qualified experts packing.
Traditional Trump global supporters and Kennedy’s MAHA acolytes have begun to drift apart as a result of agency shake-ups and new appointees. Despite the fact that it’s still early, there is tension between the MAHA and MAGA factions, according to over six current and former officials and individuals acquainted with the discussions. These individuals chose not to be identified due to a lack of authorization to speak on behalf of the health agency or fear of reprisal.
The White House was quite unhappy with Kennedy’s administration’s response to this year’s measles outbreak in Texas and elsewhere. Stefanie Spear, Kennedy’s influential senior deputy chief of staff, has demanded that she personally examine remarks and reports in an effort to rein down the agency’s public communication.
Several individuals acquainted with the dynamics between the White House and HHS informed HEADLINESFOREVER that Kennedy’s leadership style has irritated both vaccination opponents and public health authorities due to his vacillation between satisfying either group.
There are now holes in the MAHA movement as well. This month, tensions reached a boiling point when prominent MAHA backers condemned Dr. Casey Means, Trump’s choice for surgeon general, who happens to be Calley Means’ sister.
When it comes to long-term health conditions, the holistic doctor has spoken out against conventional medicine. However, there are MAHA backers who feel she has not gone far enough in discussing vaccination safety, especially in relation to COVID-19 vaccines.
What Kennedy and other MAHA advocates have openly characterized as years of rejection and exclusion from the mainstream scientific and medical communities is a huge obstacle. Despite being in control, they remain suspicious of the establishment.
“The number of actual, true MAHA supporters at the top of these agencies is maybe 75 people across an agency that has 60,000 employees,” stated Mark Gorton, co-president of the MAHA Institute and a digital entrepreneur, speaking at the Willard ballroom. “Due to the bureaucracies’ extreme resistance to change, their job is incredibly intimidating.”
But thanks to Kennedy’s inner circle of agency heads and MAHA appointments, change is in the works.
A former official with knowledge of discussions within HHS claims that the MAHA backers are undeniably in control of the government’s health agencies, even if they are outnumbered.
“Anyone in authority, who has any type of influence is an MAHA person,” the former official declared.
According to White House spokeswoman Kush Desai, who talked with HEADLINESFOREVER, the MAHA movement is an important part of Trump’s MAGA plan. “The entire Trump administration, including the White House and HHS, shares Secretary Kennedy’s priority of investigating the causes of the chronic disease epidemic in the United States, and President Trump has given Secretary Kennedy the authority and trust to carry out this directive.”
A request for comment was not responded to by HHS.
John F. Kennedy’s “renegades”
According to Kennedy, the nation’s top health experts have never been more united than they are right now.
“We’re acquainted. During an interview with Fox News this month, Kennedy said, “We go to lunch together, stay at each other’s homes, and vacation together.” Accompanying him were the heads of three major health agencies: the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya (the director of the National Institutes of Health), and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (Mr. Oz).
We have the same goal in mind. The secretary made the statement that the most powerful force that unites people: the tie of friendship, which is founded on similar ideals. Sitting here, you have four individuals who were all canceled during the COVID-19 pandemic. Every member of this agency’s upper echelons is a rebel, a force that refuses to be contained as it seeks the truth at any cost.
During government shutdowns and immunization campaigns, each of Kennedy’s juggernauts became a notable opponent of the COVID-19 reaction, as he indicated. According to a former Trump health official who spoke to HEADLINESFOREVER, the group’s leadership is “made for TV.”
At the time of the epidemic, Oz, better known by his television name Dr. Oz, was already a well-known personality and an advisor to Trump. Without waiting for more proof, he began advocating for the return to school and hyping the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine as a cure for COVID-19.
Most young, healthy individuals may safely mix and obtain herd immunity against the virus, according to a study co-authored by Bhattacharya and published in October 2020, which argues that extensive shutdowns should be lifted.
Surgeon and author Makary was a vocal opponent of vaccination mandates and a skeptic of booster doses, which drew him further into the camp of those who criticized the COVID-19 pandemic response. However, he did back some public health initiatives, such as early shutdowns and masking.
Discombobulatedly, programs, research, and staff have been eliminated as a result of DOGE-directed budget cuts, and each agency has been given the responsibility of restructuring and reorienting itself toward an MAHA vision.
In order to reevaluate vaccination evaluations and eliminate certain food dyes, Makary initiated FDA efforts. While reorganizing the $48 billion National Institutes of Health into consolidated entities with less funds, Bhattacharya is also tasked with spearheading Kennedy’s enormous autism research initiative. Along with supporting possible Medicaid access requirements, Oz has taken up the cause of increasing the use of artificial intelligence in health care outreach.