Trump Nominates Nicole Saphier for Surgeon General After Casey Means Withdrawal

U.S. Surgeon General on Thursday and nominated Nicole Saphier, a radiologist and Fox News contributor, in her place. The announcement marked Trump's third nominee for the position in his second term, following Means and Janette Nesheiwat.

Means's nomination had stalled in the Senate since February, with the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee declining to hold a vote due to insufficient support for confirmation. Trump attributed the failure to Sen. ), chair of the committee, and urged Louisiana voters to replace him.

In a Truth Social post, Trump stated that Cassidy, 'a very disloyal person whose TRUMP Endorsement got him elected but later voted to impeach President Trump on what has now proven to be a total Hoax and Scam, has stood in the way of Robert F. U.S. Cassidy, a physician, had voted to confirm Robert F.

Kennedy Jr. as Health and Human Services Secretary despite concerns over his vaccine policies. Three Republicans—Cassidy, Lisa Murkowski, and Susan Collins—expressed strong reservations about Means. Means dropped out of her surgical residency in 2018 and co-authored the book 'Good Energy' with her brother Calley Means.

She has criticized the medical establishment, advocated for raw milk and psychedelics, and questioned aspects of vaccine policies, including the universal birth dose of the hepatitis-B vaccine during a 2024 podcast appearance.

“By sabotaging this appointment, Bill Cassidy once again did the dirty work for entrenched interests seeking to stall the MAHA movement and protect the very status quo that has made America the sickest nation on earth." — Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in a social media post. Calley Means, a White House senior adviser and Casey's brother, stated that Cassidy is 'a mindless avatar for his donors and a blind defender of the status quo system that is profiting from American sickness,' adding that Cassidy worked to delay and smear her at every turn during the confirmation process. Trump and his allies described the withdrawal as a setback for the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement led by Kennedy. Despite the change, Trump stated that Means would continue to fight for MAHA on key health issues. Saphier works as a radiologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and heads breast imaging for its clinic in Monmouth, New Jersey. She is also an author and has contributed to Fox News. In his Truth Social post, Trump stated that Saphier is 'a STAR physician who has spent her career guiding women facing breast cancer through their diagnosis and treatment while advocating to increase early cancer detection and prevention, and working with men and women on all other forms of cancer diagnoses and treatments.' He added that she is 'an INCREDIBLE COMMUNICATOR who makes complicated health issues more easily understood by all Americans.' Saphier has expressed views aligning with some MAHA elements, including skepticism of vaccine mandates and support for whole milk, but she advocates for conventional cancer treatments and has spoken in favor of measles and polio vaccines. The nomination shift occurs amid broader challenges for MAHA, including a recent court ruling against some of Kennedy's anti-vaccine initiatives at HHS and staff changes at the CDC. Trump signed an executive order in February providing liability protection to glyphosate manufacturers, an herbicide targeted by MAHA activists. The House removed those protections from the Farm Bill this morning, which now heads to the Senate.”