Susie Wiles’ former lobbying firm made $186 million under Trump. Now he’s caught up in the MAGA feud.

Over the past two years, Brian Ballard’s ties to President Trump have made his lobbying firm one of the most sought-after in Washington. Today, those same ties have made him a target in the Republican Party’s post-midterm infighting.

Calley Means, a former top aide to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., claimed in an interview Sunday with CBS News’ “Face the Nation” that Ballard Partners “controlled” White House policy. Mr. Trump’s ex chief of staffSusie Wiles, worked at the firm for almost a decade as managing partner, before leaving in 2019.

Means said Ballard Partners’ rise to become the highest-paid lobbying firm “did not happen by accident.” He accused Wiles and other top advisers to Mr. Trump of catering to industries that financed Republicans before the midterm elections. Both Ballard and Wiles called the claims false.

The company’s interactions with Wiles as chief of staff “have been limited and have been the exception, not the rule,” Brian Ballard, a longtime Trump fundraiser, said in a rare statement Sunday.

Last year, Ballard Partners generated more than $88 million in lobbying revenue, which was, at the time, the highest figure ever reported by any company since the Lobbying Disclosure Act took effect in 1996, even after adjusting for inflation, according to a CBS News analysis of Senate lobbying disclosures. Through the first three quarters of 2026, the company has already surpassed that figure, bringing in more than $98 million.

The fortunes of lobbying firms in Washington tend to rise and fall with changes in administrations, as companies hire them to try to influence policy. But after an election in which probing government corruption became a major issue for voters, questions about who profited from political connections are intensifying. Ballard Partners is now among those ensnared in the MAGA feud.

That tension could intensify between now and 2028, as Republicans who welcomed Mr. Trump’s promise to “drain the swamp” speak out about the realities of an entrenched lobbying industry that has continued to thrive in Washington.

“Democrats are going to open investigations as soon as they are sworn in, and arguments from the White House over who was making money will only elevate the issue,” said Marc Short, former chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence.

The White House said in a statement that the Trump administration “has never and will never allow outside groups to influence policy decisions.”

A fight for vapes

Brian Ballard has been one of Mr. Trump’s top fundraisers for years, having raised $50 million for his 2024 campaign, according to a source close to the number who spoke on condition of anonymity. Since 2008, he has chaired the Florida finance committees for previous Republican presidential candidates. His firm opened an office in Washington in 2017 and formerly employed Wiles and Pam Bondi, who later became Mr. Trump’s attorney general.

When Mr. Trump won a second term, the company signed up hundreds of clients, although its relationship with the administration had its ups and downs. For a brief period in 2025, Brian Ballard was banned from the West Wing after his company’s lobbying approach for a cryptocurrency client frustrated White House officials, two Trump advisers told CBS News. (Ballard apologized in May 2025 and returned to the White House’s good graces, Axios reported.)

Among the firm’s longest-standing clients is RAI Services Company, a subsidiary of tobacco giant Reynolds American. He has paid millions of dollars to Ballard Partners since 2017, lobbying records show.

This relationship placed Ballard at the center of Means’ allegations of favorable treatment of vaping interests. Means resigned in late October, saying the Make America Healthy Again agenda had stalled at the White House. He blamed Wiles, saying she and “her deputies were still relentlessly pushing HHS to find a path for fruit-flavored vapes.”

In May, the Food and Drug Administration handed the tobacco industry a victory with new guidelines that could allow big tobacco companies to sell flavored vapes. The announcement came a week after Brian Ballard and tobacco executives had lunch with Mr. Trump at his golf club in Jupiter, Fla., where the president called Kennedy and other health officials to complain about the FDA, the New York Times reported. The FDA’s decision also came after RAI Services Company gave $5 million to MAGA Inc., the pro-Trump super PAC, on April 30, according to Federal Election Commission records. (FDA Commissioner Marty Makary resigned days after the guidance was released, in protest.) The White House suggested the donation had nothing to do with the FDA’s decision.

In his statement Sunday, Ballard said no one at his company had advocated with Wiles or anyone at the White House regarding allowing fruit-flavored vapes. He said his plea was about “illegal and unregulated vapes from China,” some of which, he said, were found to contain fentanyl.

Wiles told CBS News she had nothing to do with the tobacco industry’s meeting with Mr. Trump at his golf club.

Means also pointed the finger at James Blair, the former deputy chief of staff, saying he “relentlessly helped the fruit-flavored vape industry.” Blair, who left the White House in April to oversee the GOP’s midterm strategy, traded barbs with Means on social media, calling the claim that he made vapes a central midterm issue a “complete and utter lie.”

“I have not promoted flavored vaping at all,” Blair told CBS News, adding that he was responsible for ensuring that the FDA ruled on applications for nicotine products quickly — within six months. “Calley is intentionally misrepresenting my role and responsibility because he is completely opposed to this issue,” Blair added.

Blair spoke with Reynolds and other vaping companies about the FDA application process, but not about specific applications or products, according to two sources familiar with the conversations who spoke on condition of anonymity. Blair said he was considering his legal options and whether to sue Means for defamation.

A MAGA Inc. spokesperson said the group “is happy to accept legal contributions from those who agree with President Trump’s America First agenda.” A spokesperson for Wiles told Axios that Means’ corruption accusations were “outrageous, defamatory and patently false.”

“What Ballard Helps You Do”

Means’ accusations centered on what he called a “tight-knit team” around Wiles that “explicitly catered to special interests.” He said the goal was to serve big business interests in exchange for money for the midterm elections. Directing those donations, he said, “is what Ballard helps you do.”

Lobbying firms in Washington regularly advise clients on political donations, and many lobbyists raise money for candidates themselves. This practice is legal, although federal law requires lobbyists to disclose their own contributions twice a year.

Means also highlighted a long-standing dispute over glyphosate, the active ingredient in the weedkiller Roundup, which has been linked to cancer. He accused administration officials of siding with Bayer, which makes Roundup, by formally supporting the company’s argument before the Supreme Court to block state lawsuits over the herbicide. A White House official told CBS News that Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote a brief at the request of the court.

Bayer has paid Ballard Partners since January 2024 to lobby Congress and the administration on a number of issues, according to lobbying disclosures. Ballard said no one at the company lobbied Wiles or the White House over glyphosate.

Means’ assertion that Wiles was hostile to the MAHA program drew backlash from his allies. Two sources, who requested anonymity to describe a private meeting, recounted a meeting at the White House last year in which an administration official ridiculed MAHA supporters as “nuts.” Wiles retorted: “I’m one of those MAHA weirdos,” the sources said.

A White House official told CBS News that Wiles “has been a critical leader in making America healthy again.”

Tony Fabrizio, Mr. Trump’s longtime pollster, whom Means accuses of working to help pharmaceutical interests, said in a statement that Means’ allegation that he was “in the pocket of big pharma” was “ridiculous” and “patently false.” Fabrizio previously urged Republicans to campaign on lowering prescription drug prices, finding in an April 2025 poll that the issue could give Republican candidates in struggling districts a 20-point boost.

The fight is unlikely to fade away anytime soon. California Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia, the new chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said he would look into the complaints against Wiles. Attorney General Todd Blanche called Means a “disgruntled former administration official” and told CNN the Justice Department would not investigate “something someone says on a podcast.”