Trump outside ally working to sideline RFK Jr. in MAGA power struggle: report
White House chief of staff Susie Wiles intervened to save the job of a top health official President Donald Trump had fired at the behest of MAGA influencer Laura Loomer.
The president had forced out Vinay Prasad from the Food and Drug Administration two weeks ago against the wishes of its commissioner Marty Makary and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who insisted the vaccine regulator was a crucial part of the "Make America Health Again" coalition, reported Politico.
“After Vinay left, Marty and Bobby worked very, very, very hard through Susie Wiles, the president’s chief of staff, to tell the president that Vinay was not anti-Trump,” said one of senior administration official. “The MAHA movement is an expansion of the MAGA, sort of, you know, big tent.”
Trump rehired the vaccine regulator last week after Kennedy and Makary asked Wiles to step in after Loomer joined forces with pharmaceutical manufacturer Sarepta Therapeutics, whose Duchenne muscular dystrophy drug Elevidys was targeted as unsafe last month by Prasad, and he had pushed the FDA to ask the company to stop selling it.
Loomer had argued Prasad was insufficiently loyal to Trump after digging up social media posts he made during the pandemic claiming to be a Bernie Sanders supporter, and her clash with the MAHA faction signals a broader rift between Kennedy and his allies and Loomer and corporate interests.
“I think she wants to split the MAHA and MAGA coalition,” said a senior White House official. “She wants to split them in two.”
Loomer has trained her sights on Stefanie Spear, Kennedy’s principal deputy chief of staff and senior counselor, and Casey Means, Trump’s nominee to be surgeon general, but she declined comment on the reporting and the FDA referred questions to the White House.
“Secretary Kennedy and the entire HHS team are doing a terrific job as they deliver on President Trump’s mandate to Make America Healthy Again,” said White House spokesperson Kush Desai. “Scores of prominent restaurant chains and food brands dropping artificial ingredients from our food supply and historic reforms at the FDA to fast track lifesaving drugs and treatments prove that the entire HHS team is delivering for the American people.”
