特朗普前助手网上反目，在激烈的选举余波中互发法律威胁Former Trump Aides Feud Online, Trade Legal Threats in Bitter Election Fallout

Ahead of what would become a public feud on social media this weekend, James Blair, President Trump’s former deputy chief of staff, sent Calley Means, a former top health adviser, a warning.

“If you are gonna try to knife me, I’m happy to return the favor,” Blair told Means in a text message reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

The two former advisers have since been facing off online after Means publicly accused Blair and others of bending the White House to corporate interests.

The threatening text exchanges between the two former senior advisers laid bare the rocky road ahead for the GOP as Trump allies swap blame for the Republican Party’s stunning losses in the midterms. Some of the infighting has centered on allegations of profiting off connections to the Trump administration, as voters ranked corruption as one of the top issues heading into the election.

Means, a top ally to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who until recently worked on health policy in the White House, last week taped an interview with influential podcaster Joe Rogan, in which he accused Susie Wiles, Trump’s chief of staff until Friday, and other aides, including Blair, of siding with industry and stymying the administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” agenda.

Wiles, Means said in the interview, set White House priorities based on what would encourage corporate donors to give to Republicans’ midterm election efforts—rather than policies that would promote healthy eating.

In one instance, Means said he recalled Wiles telling him: “I need the money from the sugar people to win the midterms” and “Calley, we can’t do this. I need sugar money.”Means told the Journal that the conversation with Wiles happened in early June and concerned a letter Kennedy wanted to send regarding ultraprocessed food. Kennedy wanted to respond positively to a petition from former FDA commissioner David Kessler, who had asked the agency to declare certain refined carbohydrates unsafe.

Wiles didn’t respond to requests for comment. Wiles told CBS News, which aired an interview with Means on Sunday, that Trump did more for the MAHA movement than any other president. A White House official said that Wiles has been an essential leader in MAHA.

On Friday, Trump announced that he planned to replace Wiles with Stephen Miller, his longtime immigration adviser, as his new chief of staff.

The midterm election results have brought others into the GOP blame game, too. Some White House officials and Republicans have privately blamed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who advocated for the war in Iran, which Trump and Vice President JD Vance have publicly acknowledged contributed to the midterm losses. Trump has defended Hegseth, and Miller is seen as aligned with the defense secretary.

The feud between Means and allies of Wiles, however, was particularly bitter, reverberating online and in television interviews through the weekend. Sen. Ron Johnson (R., Wis.), in an interview with Fox News, urged Americans to California Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia, who is expected to become the next chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said he expected to investigate the allegations laid out by Means that White House aides favored corporate interests over Americans’ health.

Means told Rogan on his podcast that Blair was among the aides who advocated to boost sales for fruit-flavored vapes. Means later online called for Wiles and “other relevant parties” to preserve their records, including those regarding Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio, Wiles’s former lobbying firm Ballard Partners, and Bayer on the pesticide glyphosate.

In a lengthy post online, Ballard Partners said Means’s allegations about its firm were false and that its interactions with Wiles were “limited.”Bayer declined to comment. Fabrizio didn’t immediately respond.

“The implication of corruption towards me and all the others referenced by Calley is scurrilous, false, and defamatory,” Blair told the Journal. “He’s just a failed political operative and wedding dress salesman.”Blair told the Journal he is reviewing his options on whether to sue Means.

“You just dragged me in a very public forum with scurrilous half baked accusations and you know what you were doing,” Blair said in a message to Means reviewed by the Journal.

Means replied: “If I said something factually inaccurate about you, please let me know.”

“I’m not sure if you’ve been through a defamation lawsuit, but I have. And I know how it works well,” Blair told Means in another text reviewed by the Journal. “You have actual malice and I can prove harm.”The fallout from Means’s interview with Rogan could now imperil one of the president’s health nominees. Means doubled down on his criticism of Trump’s nominee to lead the Food and Drug Administration in a CBS interview aired Sunday. Means said Dr. Heidi Overton didn’t have the character or integrity to lead the FDA and had driven the White House’s relaxed stance on fruit-flavored vapes.

Overton’s nomination is pending before the Senate’s health committee and likely needs support from Sen. Susan Collins (R., Maine), who lost her election last week amid widespread voter dissatisfaction with Trump and has said she is worried about fruit-flavored vapes.

The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about Overton, but a spokesman for Overton told Face the Nation that “two former FDA commissioners think otherwise” about her qualifications for the FDA job.