President-elect Trump has finished making selections for the top public health roles in his incoming administration after he issued a flurry of nominations late Friday and tapped a leader for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on Wednesday.
Trump pledged to shake up health care in the U.S. during his campaign, and his picks to head the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the NIH and to serve as surgeon general signal he is preparing to do just that.
Trump quickly made waves by tapping prominent vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead HHS in the days after his victory, after promising he would let Kennedy “go wild on health” during a campaign rally at Madison Square Garden shortly before the election.
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Unlike Kennedy, the president-elect’s subsequent picks for top health posts have all been doctors. But like Kennedy, they hold controversial views on health care and appear to be responsive to Kennedy’s plans to shake up the agency and the 13 public health and human service subagencies it oversees in an effort to “Make America Healthy Again.”
Trump’s choices are not set in stone and will need Senate approval. But they appear on track to be confirmed without much pushback.
Meet Trump’s health care picks for his administration so far:
HHS secretary: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Kennedy is an environmental lawyer and prominent vaccine skeptic. He has no formal medical training.
His selection has raised concerns among public health experts due to his history of promoting controversial medical views that go against established scientific findings.
He founded the antivaccination group Children’s Health Defense and led the organization until stepping down in 2023. That year he launched a presidential campaign, which he ultimately “paused” earlier this year to support Trump.
Kennedy has falsely linked vaccines to numerous health conditions, arguing, for instance, that the mercury-containing vaccine preservative thimerosal causes neurological disorders in children, particularly autism.
The majority of childhood vaccines today no longer contain thimerosal, and the CDC has said there is no research linking the small amounts of the preservative used in vaccines to autism.
Kennedy has also challenged the causal link between HIV and AIDS despite long-standing scientific evidence establishing the connection. Instead, Kennedy has theorized that the disease is caused by environmental toxins, a “gay lifestyle” and alkyl nitrite inhalants commonly known as “poppers.”
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Kennedy pushed back against the COVID-19 vaccine and even promoted the conspiracy theory that the vaccine was developed to control people via microchips. He was banned from the social media platform Instagram in 2021 for repeatedly spreading vaccine misinformation.
Some of Kennedy’s other controversial claims include blaming antidepressant use for school shootings and contending that fluoride should be removed from drinking water.
“I am thrilled to announce Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as The United States Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS),” Trump posted on social media when announcing his selection of Kennedy to head the agency. “For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation when it comes to Public Health.”
“Mr. Kennedy will restore these Agencies to the traditions of Gold Standard Scientific Research, and beacons of Transparency, to end the Chronic Disease epidemic, and to Make America Great and Healthy Again!” the president-elect added.
Kennedy hasn’t released a public plan on how he would run HHS, but he has hinted at some changes he would bring to the agency if confirmed.
Kennedy is deeply skeptical of pharmaceutical companies and the agencies that oversee them, calling federal health regulators “sock puppets” controlled by special interests in the industry. He has also said he wants to do away with entire departments within the FDA, including the nutrition department.
He has also expressed a desire for the country’s health agencies to shift their focus from infectious diseases to chronic illnesses and has called for an end to the decades-long practice of putting fluoride in water to prevent tooth decay.
CMS administrator: Dr. Mehmet Oz
Oz is a heart surgeon who received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and earned a master’s degree from the Wharton School of Business at the same time. He subsequently completed a residency in cardiothoracic surgery at Columbia University.
He rose to fame on “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” where he gave nutritional advice and healthy lifestyle tips, before hosting his own spinoff series called “The Dr. Oz Show,” beginning in 2009. During his stint as a TV personality, Oz endorsed a number of controversial products and treatments, and critics said his show provided a platform for fringe claims not backed by evidence. He faced criticism in 2020 for promoting the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19.
Oz has been heavily criticized by the scientific community, including many fellow physicians. In 2015, a group of 10 doctors called for him to be removed from his faculty appointment at Columbia University due to his “disdain for science” and “evidence-based medicine.”
Columbia very quietly cut ties with Oz in 2022.
In 2021, Oz ran for an open Senate seat in Pennsylvania as a Republican, ultimately losing to Sen. John Fetterman (D).
Trump and Oz have known each other for years, with the surgeon saying he first met the president-elect after asking if he could use his golf course for an event in 2004 or 2005. Trump endorsed Oz during his Senate bid and later appointed him to the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition during his first term in the White House.
If confirmed, Oz would lead a $1.5 trillion agency that sets payments rates for doctors, hospitals and insurers, while also overseeing Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program and the Affordable Care Act — programs that provide coverage for more than 150 million people.
Like Kennedy, he has no experience running a massive bureaucracy.
“There may be no Physician more qualified and capable than Dr. Oz to Make America Healthy Again,” Trump said in a statement announcing the nomination.
“Dr. Oz will be a leader in incentivizing Disease Prevention, so we get the best results in the World for every dollar we spend on Healthcare in our Great Country,” Trump said. “He will also cut waste and fraud within our Country’s most expensive Government Agency, which is a third of our Nation’s Healthcare spend, and a quarter of our entire National Budget.”
CDC director: Dave Weldon
Weldon is an army veteran and medical doctor who earned a medical degree at the State University of New York at Buffalo. He later relocated to Florida to practice medicine and represented the state’s 15th Congressional District for seven terms starting in 1995.
Weldon, like Kennedy, believes that thimerosal has caused a spike in childhood autism cases and said as much during his time in Congress. He also sponsored legislation to ban the substance from vaccines and sponsored another bill aimed at shifting the oversight of vaccine safety away from the CDC and to an independent agency within HHS.
Weldon will be the first nominee for CDC director to ever need to be confirmed by the Senate due to a provision passed in the recent omnibus budget.
“Dave will proudly restore the CDC to its true purpose, and will work to end the Chronic Disease Epidemic,” Trump said in a post announcing Weldon’s selection.
“Americans have lost trust in the CDC and in our Federal Health Authorities, who have engaged in censorship, data manipulation, and misinformation. Given the current Chronic Health Crisis in our Country, the CDC must step up and correct past errors to focus on the Prevention of Disease.”
FDA commissioner: Marty Makary
Makary, Trump’s pick to head the FDA, is a surgical oncologist at Johns Hopkins University and author who earned national attention for opposing vaccine mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic.
During that time, he also wrote opinion pieces questioning the value of other public health measures like lockdowns and mask mandates for children. He wrote in an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal in February 2021 that the government was underestimating the rate of natural immunity from prior COVID-19 infections. He predicted that herd immunity would happen by April, which did not ultimately come to pass.
Earlier this year, Makary joined Kennedy in a congressional roundtable on health and nutrition, where he spoke out against federal health agencies’ lack of focus on chronic diseases. He also said that the United States government was the “greatest perpetrator of misinformation … with the food pyramid.”
If confirmed, Makary would lead an agency that oversees the security and safety of medical devices, cosmetics, food and medications.
“I am confident that Dr. Makary, having dedicated his career to High-Quality, Lower-Cost Care, will restore FDA to the Gold Standard of Scientific Research, and cut the bureaucratic red tape at the Agency to make sure Americans get the Medical Cures and Treatments they deserve,” Trump wrote in the announcement of his pick.
Surgeon general: Janette Nesheiwat
Nesheiwat is a physician and New York City medical director of the urgent care chain CityMD. Her sister, Julia Nesheiwat, served as homeland security adviser during the first Trump administration and is married to Trump’s pick for national security adviser, Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.).
Janette Nesheiwat, like several other Trump picks, has ties to Fox News, having worked as a medical contributor for the cable news channel since the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.
She wrote a book called “Beyond the Stethoscope: Miracles in Medicine,” which tells the story of her experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her website describes the book as a “vivid Christian memoir” with stories of “miraculous recoveries, experiences in the ER, and global medical missions” that illuminate the “power of prayer and unwavering dedication to healing service.”
Nesheiwat appears to hold a starkly opposing view on vaccines to those of Kennedy and Weldon. She previously called the COVID-19 vaccine “a gift from God,” and has said the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine is highly effective.
“I am proud to announce that Dr. Janette Nesheiwat will be the Nation’s Doctor as the United States Surgeon General. Dr. Nesheiwat is a double board-certified Medical Doctor with an unwavering commitment to saving and treating thousands of American lives,” Trump said when announcing her selection.
NIH director: Jay Bhattacharya
Trump nominated Stanford University-trained physician and economist Jay Bhattacharya to head the NIH earlier this week.
Like several of the figures Trump has so far tapped for his incoming administration, Bhattacharya was critical of the federal government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. He co-wrote an open letter in 2020 calling for the rollback of COVID-19 lockdowns and refocusing on vulnerable groups. Bhattacharya also called for restricting the power of some of the 27 institutes and centers within the NIH and has been critical of former chief medical adviser to the president Anthony Fauci.
“Together, Jay and RFK Jr. will restore the NIH to a Gold Standard of Medical Research as they examine the underlying causes of, and solutions to, America’s biggest health challenges, including our Crisis of Chronic Illness and Disease,” Trump wrote in a post announcing the pick.
