Trump announces new surgeon general nominee
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Saphier appears on Fox News in April 2024. Photo: John Lamparski/Getty Images
President Trump announced a new nominee for surgeon general Thursday, picking Nicole Saphier of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, a former Fox News medical contributor, for the top health job.
Why it matters: Trump said he's dropping his previous nominee, Casey Means, a nutrition influencer and ally of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who struggled to win enough Republican support to be confirmed by the Senate.
- Means ran into skepticism from some Republicans, including Senate health committee chair Bill Cassidy, who questioned Means on issues like whether she would encourage vaccinations against measles.
What he's saying: "Nicole is a STAR physician who has spent her career guiding women facing breast cancer through their diagnosis and treatment while tirelessly advocating to increase early cancer detection and prevention, while at the same time working with men and women on all other forms of cancer diagnoses and treatments," Trump wrote on Truth Social.
- "She is also an INCREDIBLE COMMUNICATOR, who makes complicated health issues more easily understood by all Americans."
Trump also hinted at Means' confirmation troubles in a separate post, calling Cassidy "a very disloyal person" and accusing him of "intransigence and political games."
- "Casey will continue to fight for MAHA on the many important Health issues facing our Country, such as the rising childhood disease epidemic, increased autism rates, poor nutrition, over-medicalization, and researching the root causes of infertility, and many other difficult medical problems," Trump wrote.
Saphier is the author of the book Make America Healthy Again, published in 2020, which laid out a case for a prevention-first approach to health care with a focus on the importance of individual choices.
- Her contributions on Fox have included wellness segments on topics like the hazards of ultraprocessed foods.
- In a 2021 segment, she said "mixed messaging" hurt the U.S response to the pandemic, saying there was "politicization of science" under the Trump administration but that it continued into the Biden administration.
Trump previously nominated another Fox News contributor, Janette Nesheiwat, to the role. Nesheiwat withdrew after facing questions about her credentials.
This story has been updated with additional information about Nicole Saphier's background. It has also been corrected to show that Saphier is a former Fox News medical contributor (not a current contributor).
