Texts have come to light of two MAGA hardliners in the midst of a spat, trading threats as they very publicly fall out over who is at fault for the GOP’s midterm drubbing.
Before the weekend’s social media row, James Blair, Trump’s former deputy chief of staff, put Calley Means, an ex-top health adviser, on notice with a warning. “If you are gonna try to knife me, I’m happy to return the favor,” Blair said in a text The Wall Street Journal has seen.
The former advisers have been at each other online since Means made public charges that Blair and his allies were putting corporate interests first at the White House. In a media campaign, Means has also taken aim at Susie Wiles, the president’s former chief of staff, and other aides for bowing to corporations and holding up Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) policies.
The hostile exchange between the two ex-senior advisers is indicative of the rough going for the GOP as Trump’s people trade blame for the party’s shocking midterm results. Some of the infighting has been over claims of making money off ties to the Trump administration, with corruption being one of the top concerns for the electorate.
Means sat down with Joe Rogan for an interview where he said Wiles, who was chief of staff until Friday, and others like Blair had sided with industry and put the brakes on the MAHA agenda. At one point, Means recounted Wiles saying: “I need the money from the sugar people to win the midterms” and “Calley, we can’t do this. I need sugar money.”
According to the Journal, Means says the exchange with Wiles took place in early June and concerned a letter Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wanted to issue on ultra-processed food in response to a petition by former FDA head David Kessler to declare some refined carbs unsafe.
Trump has now put forward Stephen Miller, the immigration hardliner, to take over as chief of staff.
As for the allegations, Ballard Partners, Wiles’s former lobbying firm, put out a long statement online, claiming Means was wrong about its firm and that it had “limited” dealings with Wiles. Bayer, which Means named over the pesticide glyphosate, would not comment, and Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio did not immediately respond to the Journal.
Blair told the Journal the insinuations of corruption leveled at him and the rest by Means are “scurrilous, false, and defamatory.” He called Means “a failed political operative and wedding dress salesman.” Blair is considering whether to file a lawsuit.
“You just dragged me in a very public forum with scurrilous, half-baked accusations and you know what you were doing,” Blair wrote to Means in a message the Journal reviewed.
“If I said something factually inaccurate about you, please let me know,” was Means’s answer.