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conspiracy theories
Senators Urged to Oppose 'Wholly Unqualified' Trump Surgeon General Nominee
The coalition noted that Dr. Casey Means does not have an active medical license and "has expressed misinformed and conspiratorial thinking on matters of public health."
Jul 25, 2025
In a Friday letter to senators, 32 consumer, health, and other advocacy groups argued that Dr. Casey Means, President Donald Trump's proposed surgeon general, "is not a serious nominee and is wholly unqualified to serve as a lead U.S. public health official."
Trump initially chose Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, a Fox News contributor and medical director of an urgent care network, for the post. However, amid scrutiny of how Nesheiwat portrayed her credentials, the president announced Means as his new pick in a May social media post, touting her commitment to the administration's "Make America Healthy Again" (MAHA) agenda.
"Casey has impeccable 'MAHA' credentials, and will work closely with our wonderful Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to ensure a successful implementation of our Agenda in order to reverse the Chronic Disease Epidemic, and ensure Great Health, in the future, for ALL Americans," Trump said. "Her academic achievements, together with her life's work, are absolutely outstanding. Dr. Casey Means has the potential to be one of the finest Surgeon Generals in United States History. Congratulations to Casey! Secretary Kennedy looks forward to working with Dr. Janette Nesheiwat in another capacity at HHS."
While Means has a medical degree from the Stanford School of Medicine, "her Oregon medical license has been inactive since 2019," according to Newsweek reporting cited in the Friday letter. The coalition highlighted that Means "dropped out of her surgical residency before completing it," and "states that it was after leaving traditional medical practice that she began to 'understand the real reasons why people get sick' and properly treat them."
"The range of unscientific ideas, wellness products, and conspiratorial claims that Means is associated with makes her a less-than-ideal candidate."
"Colleagues from her residency have criticized her for wrongly perpetuating the idea that modern medicine is a conspiracy to keep people sick," the groups wrote. "Indeed, in her blog posts and interviews as a wellness influencer, Means has expressed misinformed and conspiratorial thinking on matters of public health. She has called birth control pills a 'disrespect of life.'"
Means has "declined to distance herself from anti-vaccine positions espoused" by Kennedy, the letter notes. She has also "refused to say if she thinks vaccines are effective, and has even expressed skepticism about the hepatitis B vaccination for babies."
The letter also warns of "potential conflicts of interest," explaining that "she founded and is the chief medical officer of Levels, a membership-based continuous glucose monitoring technology company. If she does not step down from this role and divest from the company, she will likely be engaging directly on matters as surgeon general from which she stands to personally profit."
One of the surgeon general's primary responsibilities is leading the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, which is made up of thousands of civil servants—including many "subject matter experts who have already been wrongfully terminated by the Trump administration and by directives from Secretary Kennedy," the letter says. Means "may be out of her depth" in this role, as "she has little to no managerial experience in the context of government agencies or scientific research."
The other fundamental responsibility of the job is educating the public about the best available science and issuing public health advisories. According to the letter, "The range of unscientific ideas, wellness products, and conspiratorial claims that Means is associated with makes her a less-than-ideal candidate to serve in a role that requires being a credible health communicator for the country and upholding sound science."
"These are seriously disqualifying characteristics for the surgeon general of the U.S. and the Trump administration should immediately rescind Means' nomination for this position," the coalition concluded. "If they do not, and her confirmation proceeds to the Senate floor, senators must vote no."
The coalition is co-led by Public Citizen and the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Other members include AFL-CIO, Autistic Self Advocacy Network, Doctors for America, Healthy Schools Campaign, Labor Campaign for Single Payer, MomsRising, National Nurses United, and Progressive Democrats of America.
The U.S. Senate, which is narrowly controlled by Republicans, hasn't yet formally rejected any Trump nominees, though Vice President JD Vance broke a tie to confirm Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and over 20 nominations have been withdrawn, according to a tracker maintained by the Partnership for Public Service and The Washington Post.
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Laura Loomer: Trump Whisperer
Meet the influential right-wing conspiracy theorist who has U.S. President Donald Trump’s ear.
May 22, 2025
Laura Loomer is 31 years old and a graduate of Barry University, a private Catholic university. A former commentator on Alex Jones’s Infowars and a far-right conspiracy theorist, she has 1.5 million followers on X. Loomer traffics in anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant rhetoric. She has called herself a “proud Islamophobe” and “pro-white nationalism.”
And she has U.S. President Donald Trump’s ear.
In 2020, Loomer was the Republican nominee for Congress from the Florida district where Mar-a-Lago is located. She campaigned almost exclusively on her allegiance to Trump who, along with Roger Stone, supported her candidacy. Loomer lost the election, as well as her bid to become the party’s nominee again in 2022.
An Extreme Trump Loyalist
During the 2024 campaign, Loomer said on X that if Vice President Kamala Harris—whose mother was born in India—won the election, “the White House will smell like curry.” Those comments drew the condemnation of even Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who called her “toxic.”
“Getting Loomered” means targeting someone to determine the sufficiency of the person’s loyalty to Trump and his agenda.
A fervent Trump supporter during the 2024 Republican primaries, she claimed without evidence that Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis exaggerated his wife’s bout with breast cancer to gain sympathy votes during his presidential campaign. Her conspiracy theories range from school shootings to election fraud. She shared a video on X stating that the 9/11 attacks were an “inside job.”
According to Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), “Laura Loomer is a crazy conspiracy theorist who regularly utters disgusting garbage intended to divide Republicans.”
A Powerful Influence
Trump aides have tried to limit Loomer’s access to the president—with mixed results. In 2024, She accompanied Trump during appearances commemorating 9/11 in New York and Pennsylvania and traveled on his plane to Iowa where Trump told the audience, “You want her on your side.”
Trump’s top advisers have learned the price of not being on Loomer’s side. In March 2025, she started her own research firm— Loomered Strategies—to provide high-level opposition research and vetting for hire. “Getting Loomered” means targeting someone to determine the sufficiency of the person’s loyalty to Trump and his agenda.
According to Trump, “She’s a strong person. She’s got strong opinions…”
On April 2, she “Loomered” the National Security Council (NSC). Meeting with Trump in the Oval Office, she attacked the character and loyalty of several NSC officials and named the people he should fire. Michael Waltz, who headed the agency, joined the meeting late and briefly tried to defend some of his people. But Trump immediately fired six of her targets.
Waltz and his deputy, Alex Wong, managed to survive Loomer’s onslaught that day, but not for long. Less than a month later, Trump announced Waltz’s termination. The intervening revelation of his inadvertent inclusion of The Atlantic’s editor Jeffrey Goldberg on a sensitive group chat on the Signal app had made him vulnerable in any event.
But Wong was out too. Loomer had speculated that Wong’s family was part of a conspiracy and that he had added Goldberg to the Signal chat “on purpose as part of a foreign opp to embarrass the Trump administration on behalf of China.” Wong’s father is of Taiwanese descent, and Loomer had referred to Wong’s wife Candice as a “Chinese woman.” Candice Wong had clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, was a career prosecutor, and served as a Justice Department official during Trump’s first term.
Three weeks later, Loomer went after an assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, Adam Schleifer, who had unsuccessfully run for Congress as a Democrat in 2020. She posted on social media that Schleifer was a “Biden holdover” and a “Trump hater” who should be fired. An hour later, Schleifer received a one-sentence email terminating his employment. In a highly unusual action, the message came directly from the White House on behalf of the president personally. It gave no reason for Schleifer’s dismissal.
Impervious to Facts
Loomer has also attacked the National Intelligence Council, an elite internal think tank that reports to the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard. Previously, the White House had asked the council to assess the link between the Venezuelan government and the notorious Tren de Aragua gang. Without such a link, Trump could not rely on the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deprive the gang’s members of due process before deporting them.
On February 26, senior analyst at the council Michael Collins reported the intelligence community’s consensus that the Venezuelan government did not control the gang. But on March 15, Trump signed a proclamation invoking the Alien Enemies Act based on purportedly factual findings that contradicted the report.
With a presidential inner circle that includes Laura Loomer, we’re all in deep trouble.
When Collins’ report became public and revealed Trump’s lie, Loomer blasted the council as “career anti-Trump bureaucrats” who “need to be replaced if they want to promote open borders.” In the same post, she pasted images of Collins’s LinkedIn profile and an article about the council’s memo. Three weeks later, Gabbard fired Collins.
Meanwhile, federal courts have blocked Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act in every district where he has tried to invoke it. The courts have found that the act’s predicate—that the Venezuelan gang is engaged in either a “war,” “invasion,” or a “predatory incursion” of the United States—does not exist.
At a Mar-a-Lago press conference in April 2024, Trump praised Loomer as “a woman of courage,” he said, “You don’t want to be Loomered. If you’re Loomered, you’re in deep trouble.”
With a presidential inner circle that includes Laura Loomer, we’re all in deep trouble.
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Patel Taps Far-Right Misinformation Peddler Dan Bongino for Deputy FBI Director
"I know this feels like a bad dream," said one Democratic senator. "It isn't."
Feb 24, 2025
In a move cheered by the MAGA faithful but derided by critics, FBI Director Kash Patel picked Dan Bongino—a former New York City police officer and Secret Service agent turned Fox News and podcast host known for spreading right-wing conspiracy theories—as the agency's deputy director.
In what he called "great news for Law Enforcement and American Justice," U.S. President Donald Trump took to his Truth Social site to announce Patel's selection of Bongino for the number two FBI post.
On Monday, Bongino said in a statement: "My career has always been about service. I'm here to work. I'm here to lead. And I'm here to ensure that America's law enforcement institutions uphold the values and integrity they were built upon."
Patel congratulated Bongino, whom he called a "warrior."
"With Pam Bondi as our new attorney general, we are assembling a team focused on restoring public trust, upholding the rule of law, and ensuring justice is served," Patel said on Monday.
The Bulwark reported Monday that the FBI Agents Association issued a memo implying that Patel broke a commitment he made to appoint "an on-board, active special agent" as deputy director, "as has been the case for 117 years."
Critics lambasted Patel's pick, with progressive podcast host David Paskman
writing on the Bluesky social media site, "We're so screwed."
Adam Goldman and Devlin Barrett wrote in The New York Times: "The combination of Mr. Patel and Mr. Bongino will represent the least experienced leadership pair in the bureau's history. It is also all but certain to prompt concerns about how the men, who have freely peddled misinformation and embraced partisan politics, will run an agency typically insulated from White House interference."
Some critics expressed fears that Trump will use Patel and Bongino to attack political opponents.
Others called Bongino a "grifter."
Bongino worked as a New York police officer from 1995-99 and as a Secret Service agent from 1999-2011, leaving the agency to run for U.S. Senate—the first of three unsuccessful political campaigns.
After failing in politics, Bongino became a popular conspiracy theorist on social media and right-wing talk radio. In addition to hosting his own Fox News program from 2021-23 and a podcast with millions of listeners, he has frequently appeared on Alex Jones' Infowars fake news program. He also hosted a show on the National Rifle Association's defunct online video channel.
Bongino is the author of more than half a dozen books, some of them promoting conspiracy theories about the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections. He quickly became one of the most strident purveyors of Trump's "Big Lie" that the 2020 election was stolen by the so-called "deep state" and Democrats.
Since then, Bongino has used his platforms to amplify conspiracy theories and lies about topics including the January 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol insurrection and the Covid-19 pandemic. He was banned from both YouTube and Google's ad service for spreading pandemic-related misinformation. In 2020, The New York Times included him on its list of "misinformation superspreaders."
At times, Bongino seemed to relish his notoriety, once explaining that "my entire life right now is about owning the libs."
Last year, the purportedly non-political appointee ripped "scumbag commie libs," the "biggest pussies I've ever seen," in a vague threat posted on Elon Musk's social media site X.
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