Kristina Peterson
Appearances
Apple News Today
How an “administrative error” sent a man to a Salvadoran prison
What's interesting about this moment is that they are not particularly happy with the actions that he and his administration are taking. They don't necessarily blame the president personally, but they are feeling the brunt of a variety of decisions.
Apple News Today
How an “administrative error” sent a man to a Salvadoran prison
Commodity prices are so low and costs are so high that Congress authorized $10 billion in economic aid in December that's just going out now. So these are tough times for farmers already to be contending with new challenges.
Apple News Today
How an “administrative error” sent a man to a Salvadoran prison
When our photographer went to meet up with him, his forklift that he had hoped to replace and instead is just repairing wouldn't start. He can't finish a packing and processing facility that he was building to help him scale up. He can't buy a machine that would kind of parcel honey out into little packets to use to sell to school districts.
Apple News Today
How an “administrative error” sent a man to a Salvadoran prison
So it's really slowing his ability to scale up his operations.
Apple News Today
How an “administrative error” sent a man to a Salvadoran prison
For farmers, there are constraints that don't exist elsewhere. For example, seasons and growing conditions. You can't just grow an avocado anywhere. Some U.S. companies grow tomatoes and avocados in Mexico because the growing conditions are so much more favorable there.
Apple News Today
How an “administrative error” sent a man to a Salvadoran prison
So one of the things they're saying is, you know, we support the president's goals, but just practically, it's really hard to do some of those things in the U.S. in April.
Apple News Today
Why RFK Jr. wants to ban Trump’s favorite drink
There have been lawmakers and states from the Republican Party, Democratic Party for years who have been discussing whether the government should be subsidizing these purchases. And they believe that it could boost the sort of overall nutritional impact of the food aid program if you said we're not going to let people use these benefits to buy sugary desserts or sugary drinks.
Apple News Today
Why RFK Jr. wants to ban Trump’s favorite drink
That's been a longstanding argument that this is going to place a burden on retailers. It's going to be hard to go through every item and decide which has to be restricted and which can be included in the program. Are cashiers going to have to play interference?
Apple News Today
Why RFK Jr. wants to ban Trump’s favorite drink
There's also an argument you hear from Democrats and anti-hunger groups that say people on the food aid program have the same dignity as everyone else. We shouldn't be telling them what they can and can't eat. We don't tell anyone else what they can and can't eat.
Apple News Today
Why RFK Jr. wants to ban Trump’s favorite drink
They're making a political argument that President Trump's supporters and the people who voted for him in their polling do not want to restrict soda. And they make an argument that doing so would make these people feel like second-class citizens and that it would not score any political points for President Trump or Republicans.
The Journal.
MAHA Influencers Go to Washington
Well, what's interesting is that he's really pushed back on this idea that she's not qualified because she didn't, for example, complete her surgical residency. And he has said, well, that's what makes her the best person for this job, that she has been a skeptic and that she didn't just swallow the traditional medical orthodoxy.
The Journal.
MAHA Influencers Go to Washington
So he's really leaning into that as part of his defense.
The Journal.
MAHA Influencers Go to Washington
I think what struck me the most was that RFK really has emphasized over and over again how much he wanted to weed out all conflicts of interest. So he really has made that a central core point. And so that's why it does strike me as interesting that so many people who do have companies in the health and wellness space are involved in his administration one way or another.
The Journal.
MAHA Influencers Go to Washington
And it may not be a full conflict of interest, but the experts that I spoke to said it does at least give the appearance of some intermingling of interests. RFK's rise and the attention to the Make America Healthy Again movement generally gives people involved in this space more of a bigger audience, more attention to these issues.
The Journal.
MAHA Influencers Go to Washington
And then a few people do stand to benefit from having particular attention from RFK and a particular boost in visibility by doing public events with him.
The Journal.
MAHA Influencers Go to Washington
I think it's probably likely that she gets confirmed. Most of the president's nominees have gotten through the Senate with a handful of exceptions. So I think that there has to be a pretty compelling reason for Republican senators to vote no. And I'm not sure I see that at this point.
The Journal.
MAHA Influencers Go to Washington
A lot of the most influential Maha figures have businesses in the wellness industry, which is a little more lightly regulated. And people that I've talked to have raised some concerns that their close alliance with RFK kind of makes it seem like the government has backed the wellness industry, that they have this sort of imprimatur of the government when that's not necessarily the case.
The Journal.
MAHA Influencers Go to Washington
Some of these companies are sort of catering to health optimization, people who want to really learn a lot about their health and optimize everything they can do to be healthier and live longer. And that's just a little bit of a different emphasis than sort of traditional public health.
The Journal.
MAHA Influencers Go to Washington
It had the vibe of almost a campaign event. Tons of people wearing Maha hats, apparel, When RFK was speaking, people held up their phones to film him. It really had almost like a concert rock star vibe, more than a typical health policy press conference. And it was packed. There were tons of people.
The Journal.
MAHA Influencers Go to Washington
who is known as the food babe she is someone who has long championed getting rid of certain dyes and additives out of certain foods and she is the co-founder of a company called Truvani which makes protein powder supplements and snack bars And she was extremely enthusiastic to be talking about the FDA's announcement that it was phasing out certain food dyes.
The Journal.
MAHA Influencers Go to Washington
It was just kind of striking to have some people on stage who were later praised by Kennedy.
The Journal.
MAHA Influencers Go to Washington
So she's someone that they've really turned to to help amplify their message. And they don't typically identify her company, but, you know, she has a very vigorous online presence. And it does seem like this is giving her even more visibility.
The Journal.
MAHA Influencers Go to Washington
Probably not. Some of these situations operate in a little bit of a gray zone. People who are coming into government do have to declare all of their financial investments. Sometimes the government asks them to divest of certain stocks. They generally cannot keep receiving a salary from the outside.
The Journal.
MAHA Influencers Go to Washington
Casey Means is one of the more influential figures in the Make America Healthy Again movement.
The Journal.
MAHA Influencers Go to Washington
Ethics experts say most of the time the government doesn't want to give the impression of even the appearance of a conflict of interest. So that's why they would typically avoid things like that that could give the impression of using the public office for private gain.
The Journal.
MAHA Influencers Go to Washington
He talked about how he and Mark Hyman have long been friends. He gave a shout out to Mark Hyman's book.
The Journal.
MAHA Influencers Go to Washington
So there were just some kind of unorthodox elements of having business owners who didn't talk about their businesses, but stand to benefit from some of these policies and from at a minimum being on stage with RFK Jr. and being praised by him.
The Journal.
MAHA Influencers Go to Washington
She kind of came to prominence last year when she and her brother wrote this book called Good Energy that is sort of examining the root causes for why America is not as healthy as it should be.
The Journal.
MAHA Influencers Go to Washington
I think what is unusual that we're seeing is this sort of intertwining of the Maha universe with HHS. And not all of this is in ways that raise eyebrows. Some of it is just that there is a very devoted community of Maha moms, as they're called, and advocates of
The Journal.
MAHA Influencers Go to Washington
But I think where people are concerned is where they do enter into the official agency activities and are featured in their press conferences or their official communications. That's where I think things get a little blurry, according to ethics experts. And the concern specifically is, are you using government, the public office to benefit individuals or businesses?
The Journal.
MAHA Influencers Go to Washington
Casey Means writes in her book about how when their mother was dying in 2021, she was angered by the doctors who were pushing surgical interventions on her mother when she wanted more to preserve her quality of life. And so she felt that that was an example of the medical establishment not giving good advice to patients and not putting their wishes first.
The Journal.
MAHA Influencers Go to Washington
So Casey is a co-founder of a company called Levels that is a subscription-based app that connects to wearable glucose monitors.
The Journal.
MAHA Influencers Go to Washington
That's typically what happens, right? But this administration has been a little different, and they haven't always been as scrupulous about some of these matters as previous administrations have been in some of the gray zone areas. I think typically when people enter government, they are generally expected to leave their outside financial interests behind.
The Journal.
MAHA Influencers Go to Washington
They can resume having jobs in the private sector after their stint in government is done. For example, there are some members of Kennedy's senior staff who have retained stock investments in specific companies. And ethics folks that I spoke to said it would frankly just be cleaner and less complicated if they...
The Journal.
MAHA Influencers Go to Washington
sold those stocks so there's an intertwining of some of these businesses that makes it hard to say i'm not going to make any decisions that affect this company so that's the reason that typically people say it's just easier if you don't have those assets for your time in government
The Journal.
MAHA Influencers Go to Washington
The Surgeon General is tasked with providing health advice. I think we've seen them sometimes really embrace that as a bully pulpit and be able to push certain messages out to the public. So in this instance, you know, she already has a following, but this would for sure give her a broader audience experience.
The Journal.
MAHA Influencers Go to Washington
The rise of RFK, he's now the nation's most powerful public health official, has created avenues in which some of these figures stand to profit.
The Journal.
MAHA Influencers Go to Washington
So Callie Means has been a top Kennedy aide since the summer. He is the co-founder of a company called TruMed, whose affiliated doctors can affirm that wellness products are medically necessary so customers can buy them with health savings accounts.
The Journal.
MAHA Influencers Go to Washington
I mean, would you... Can that be characterized as a conflict of interest at all? I mean, I think I would have to defer to like a lawyer on that. Fair. But it is... I mean, he is a special government employee, so the rules are a little different for him. And he, you know, HHS has said that everyone has abided by the ethics laws.