Key Trump Health Adviser Resigns Ahead of Midterm Elections

Calley Means, a leader of the Make America Healthy Again movement, resigned from the Trump administration on Thursday, signaling a further erosion of a coalition that helped propel President Trump to power a second time.

Mr. Means, a top adviser at the Department of Health and Human Services, was a key official behind policies around food quality, including an effort to increase disclosure of the chemicals in food, remove artificial food dyes and ban soda from the federal food assistance program known as SNAP.

He also worked on an executive order to support the development of psychedelic medications, which got a boost from the podcast host Joe Rogan.

“I leave with tremendous respect for President Trump and R.F.K. Jr. — two historic figures who are committed to confronting a corrupt D.C. bureaucracy that is doing everything possible to protect the status quo,” Mr. Means said in a statement.

In recent months, though, he began to feel stymied in his attempts to deliver on promises to improve the food supply, such as by defining ultraprocessed foods, an initial step to regulating them, according to a person close to him.

Vani Hari, a MAHA leader and healthy eating influencer, said that a turning point for Mr. Means came when the White House roiled the MAHA movement with an executive order supporting the increased production of glyphosate, an herbicide that the movement is particularly focused on eliminating.

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