WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump has announced his intention to nominate Nicole Saphier, a contributor to Fox News Channel, for the position of Surgeon General. This decision follows the stalled nomination of Casey Means in the Senate, where her qualifications and views on vaccines raised concerns.
In a statement shared on social media Thursday, President Trump praised Saphier as “a STAR physician,” citing her extensive experience in guiding women through breast cancer diagnoses and treatments.
Casey Means faced intense scrutiny from senators across party lines during a recent confirmation hearing. The focus on her vaccine views and other health issues led to increasing doubts about her potential to secure the necessary votes for confirmation.
Earlier the same day, Trump took to social media to express support for Means, labeling her “a strong MAHA Warrior.” He also criticized the “intransigence and political games” of Republican Senator Bill Cassidy from Louisiana, who had questioned Means’ vaccine stance during the hearing.
Means’ withdrawal from consideration for the Surgeon General role represents a setback for Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his supporters, who had advocated for her despite her unconventional medical background and controversial statements regarding vaccines and other health matters.
The decision to withdraw Means’ nomination comes after challenging interactions with senators from both parties, which left her confirmation prospects uncertain. Since her hearing in late February, her nomination had stalled, even as advocates from Kennedy’s Make America Great Again movement rallied support by urging constituents to contact Republican senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, both of whom had expressed hesitation regarding her nomination.
In nominating Means last May, Trump sought to hire a close ally of Kennedy as the nation’s doctor. Means, a Stanford-education physician whose disillusionment with the healthcare system led to her career as an author and entrepreneur, promotes ideas popular with the MAHA movement, including that Americans are overmedicalized and that diet and lifestyle changes should be at the center of efforts to end widespread chronic disease.
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