During Trump’s first term, Beck was involved in rolling back regulations related to PFAS, asbestos, and other chemicals associated with health harms. OCSPP oversees the Office of Pesticide Programs, which regulates the approval and use of all agricultural chemicals and regulates non-agricultural chemicals that affect agriculture, like PFAS.
Lynn Ann Dekleva, Deputy Assistant Administrator, Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention
Dekleva spent several years at the American Chemistry Council as a senior director and previously worked at the EPA. But for more than 30 years before that, she worked at DuPont, one of the country’s largest chemical companies.
Kyle Kunkler, Deputy Assistant Administrator, Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention
Kunkler previously worked as a lobbyist for the American Soybean Association and the Biotechnology Innovation Organization, where he lobbied against restrictions on pesticide use. In 2020, the pesticide industry’s trade association CropLife America gave Kunkler its “rising star” award.
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS): Health Tech and Wellness
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Secretary of Health and Human Services
Kennedy’s wealth connects him to companies all over the economic spectrum. In the year covered by his financial disclosure forms, he reported more than $11 million in direct income.
He earned the majority, about $8.8 million in profits, from his law firm, Kennedy & Madonna. He also received income from J.W. Howard Attorneys, which in recent years has led multiple cases attacking COVID-19 vaccine mandates, and Wisner Baum, which paid him for case referrals related to the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.
Kennedy also reported a long list of holdings and earnings from Bitcoin, as well as an immunotherapy development company, a company that leases land for oil and gas extraction, commercial real estate, private equity funds, and investments in big-name companies, including Amazon, Apple, and CRISPR Therapeutics AG.
Finally, he’s made money on the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement, including a $100,000 licensing fee for use of the MAHA brand and multiple six-figure speaking fees. Skyhorse Publishing paid him $451,000 for author referrals and was set to pay him two book advances between $1 million and $2 million each for books titled Unsettled Science and A Defense for Israel. Those projects have been paused while he is in office. Skyhorse was founded by Tony Lyons, a close ally of Kennedy who recently co-created the MAHA Institute, which supports the movement’s efforts in D.C.
Jim O’Neill, Deputy Secretary and Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Acting Director
O’Neill has been Kennedy’s second-in-command since June. In August, following Susan Monarez’s firing and a subsequent spate of leadership resignations at the CDC, he was appointed acting director there.
O’Neill spent most of his career running investment funds for Peter Thiel, including at the venture capital firm Mithril Capital, which funds various healthcare companies, among them surgical technology and diabetes treatments. It also funds Palantir, which has become the go-to government software contractor since Trump took office. His disclosure forms show he has links to Advantage Therapeutics, Rational Vaccines, and Noots, Inc., which makes supplements popular among MAHA adherents.
Calley Means, Special Advisor
Means often acts as Kennedy’s mouthpiece on MAHA priorities related to food and health. He is an outspoken member of the team, often accusing government employees of being beholden to industry. Because he’s a special government employee, Means does not have to fill out financial disclosure forms.
Means co-founded Truemed, a company that directs health savings account dollars toward wellness products and memberships that reportedly raised more than $32 million in venture capital earlier this year. Truemed has extensive partnerships with makers of supplements (an industry that wants HHS to loosen regulations), health technology, and other wellness products.
Casey Means, Surgeon General (nominated)
Casey co-founded Levels Health, a tech company that sells wearable blood-glucose monitors and subscriptions for ongoing tracking. In 2022, Levels announced a $300-million valuation, and it has raised $50 million to date. Casey also has a newsletter that is monetized through sponsorships. Sponsors have included Function Health, a company that provides blood tests and MRI scans for $500 per year and does not take insurance; Pique teas; and multiple supplement companies, including Momentous, Timeline, and Pendulum.
In her ethics forms, Casey says she’ll resign her position as an advisor to Levels and divest from her stock options upon confirmation. She’ll also stop producing her newsletter and terminate sponsorship agreements that are in place. In addition, she has promised to divest her interests in 14 companies, including Chevron Corporation and tobacco giants Altria Group and Phillip Morris International.
Marty Makary, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner
Makary was a professor and surgeon at Johns Hopkins Medicine before joining the FDA. He wrote the book Blind Spots: When Medicine Gets It Wrong, and What It Means for Our Health. His financial disclosure forms show he had links to and investments in multiple healthcare companies. He served as the chief medical officer at Sesame Care, a telehealth company that prescribes weight-loss drugs. He was on the board of Harrow, an eye health company; co-owned a health tech company; acted as an advisor for a grocery delivery company; and had a financial relationship with MedRegen, a pharmaceutical company developing treatments for tissue and organ injury.
Kyle Diamantas, Deputy Commissioner for Human Foods, FDA
Diamantas was a corporate lawyer at Jones Day, a firm closely aligned with the first Trump administration that played a role in efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. As a lawyer there, Diamantas defended Abbott Laboratories, one of the country’s largest formula makers, in a lawsuit in which parents accused Abbott of failing to warn them that a product could raise the risk of a deadly bowel condition.
