Trump Nominates Radiologist Nicole Saphier as Surgeon General After Casey Means' Nomination Stalls
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President Donald Trump said Thursday he's nominating former Fox News Channel contributor and radiologist Dr. Nicole Saphier for surgeon general after Dr. Casey Means' path forward stalled in the Senate over questions about her experience and her stance on vaccines.
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NPR NewsWASHINGTON — President Trump said Thursday he's nominating radiologist and former Fox News Channel contributor Dr. Nicole Saphier for surgeon general after Dr. Casey Means' path forward stalled in the Senate over questions about her experience and her stance on vaccines.
New York TimesDr. Means’s nomination had stalled in part over her views on vaccines. The president said he was instead nominating Dr. Nicole B. Saphier, a radiologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
The HillPresident Trump on Thursday pulled the controversial nomination of Casey Means for surgeon general, announcing on Truth Social that her replacement would be Fox News contributor and radiologist Dr. Nicole Saphier, marking his third nominee for the post.  “Nicole is a STAR physician who has spent her career guiding women facing breast cancer through their…
Fox NewsIn a subsequent post, Trump announced the nomination of Dr. Nicole Saphier, a former Fox News Channel contributor. He called her "a STAR physician" who has spent her career guiding women through breast cancer diagnoses while "tirelessly advocating to increase early cancer detection and prevention for both men and women."
HuffPostPresident Donald Trump is nominating Dr. Nicole Saphier for surgeon general, ending the bid of his prior pick, Dr. Casey Means, a wellness influencer with an inactive medical license who dropped out of her residency program.
The Daily WireSaphier is Trump’s third nominee for Surgeon General. His first pick, Dr. Janette Nesheiwat — another former Fox News contributor — had her nomination pulled in May 2025 after right-wing influencer Laura Loomer opposed her nomination, according to the New York Times.
Associated PressWASHINGTON (AP) — Dr. Nicole Saphier is President Donald Trump’s latest pick for the vacant role of U.S. surgeon general, a nomination that ended the embattled campaign of his previous candidate, Dr. Casey Means, after it became clear she didn’t have the votes to advance out of a Senate committee.
ABC NewsPresident Donald Trump said on Thursday that he is nominating Dr. Nicole Saphier to be the next surgeon general.
ReutersTrump names Nicole Saphier as Surgeon General pick, withdraws Means Reuters
USA TodayPresident Trump nominates Dr. Nicole Saphier as US surgeon general USA Today
The AtlanticThe new surgeon-general nominee is Nicole Saphier, a radiologist and Fox News contributor. A number of her views align with Kennedy’s and fall outside the public-health consensus. In 2021, for example, she published a book arguing that the United States overreacted to the coronavirus pandemic for political reasons. She has also endorsed Kennedy’s upside-down food pyramid and echoed his praise for whole milk, both of which have received mixed reviews from nutrition experts. But Saphier is far more mainstream than the loudest MAHA activists. As a radiologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering (and the head of breast imaging for its clinic in Monmouth, New Jersey), she advocates for conventional cancer treatments.
NBC News00:19 Trump pulls his nominee for surgeon general 00:0000:00 UP NEXT Several injured in Tacoma high school stabbing
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If confirmed as the nation’s doctor, Saphier would be empowered to issue advisories that warn of public health threats. Surgeons general also have used the office to advocate on vaccination issues — though the office doesn’t create vaccine policy.
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ABC NewsThe Surgeon General is colloquially referred to as the "Nation's Doctor" and traditionally provides Americans with scientific information about health such as nutrition, screen time and mental health. The position may be best known for issuing warnings on products.
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Means, a Stanford University-educated physician and MAHA influencer who didn’t finish her surgical residency in Oregon and has an inactive medical license, had faced a grilling from senators of both major political parties over her experience and stance on vaccination. She told The Associated Press her failed nomination was the result of a “yearlong smear campaign.”
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NPR NewsIn an interview Thursday, Means said her nomination fell apart after a "yearlong smear campaign against me," which she said was a larger effort to impugn the MAHA movement and its focus on reforming food and healthcare.
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Like Means, Saphier has questioned whether every child needs to get the hepatitis B vaccine at birth.
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Associated PressAdvocating for vaccination while criticizing COVID-era mandates Like Means, Saphier has questioned some aspects of the U.S. childhood vaccine schedule, including the universal birth dose of the hepatitis B vaccine, a longtime recommendation that the Trump administration has been trying to weaken.
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In an email to the AP last year, Saphier said Trump’s advice to pregnant women not to take Tylenol, which promoted unproven ties between the medication and autism, was overly simplistic. She said equally important, and missing from Trump’s message, was the fact that untreated fever or severe pain can also pose serious risks to mothers and babies.
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NPR NewsIn at least one case, Saphier has diverted from Trump's medical messaging. Last year, as Trump advised pregnant women, "Don't take Tylenol" — promoting unproven and in some cases discredited ties between the medication, vaccines and autism — Saphier said that while pregnant women generally are advised to take acetaminophen only under medical supervision, when necessary and at the lowest effective dose, equally important was that untreated fever or severe pain can also pose serious risks to mothers and babies. She noted that part was missing from Trump's message, delivered at a press conference with top U.S. health officials.
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But Means’s lukewarm endorsement of immunization seems to have been insufficient. She believes, based on her conversations with Murkowski and Collins, that concerns about the anti-vaccine coalition in the MAHA movement helped tank her nomination, she told me.
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NPR NewsMeans' nomination had languished since the late February confirmation hearing, even as activists from the MAHA movement orchestrated a push to support her bid by surging phone calls to Republican senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine. They had both indicated reservations with the pick.
HuffPostLike Means, who expressed skepticism about the efficacy of vaccines during her confirmation hearings, Saphier appears to harbor anti-vaccine sentiments.
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Means insisted when we spoke this afternoon that vaccine safety isn’t one of her primary issues and that her message is instead “about empowerment and about fixing broken health-care incentives.” During her Senate confirmation hearing, she indeed struck a moderate tone, telling Cassidy she believes that “vaccines are a key part of any infectious-disease public-health strategy.”
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Fox NewsMeans had previously appeared before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, which Cassidy chairs. During the proceeding, Cassidy raised concerns regarding her views on vaccinations. Fox News Digital has reached out to Cassidy's office for comment.
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“Bill Cassidy is a mindless avatar for his donors and a blind defender of the status quo system that is profiting from American sickness,” he wrote.
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Fox News"Bill Cassidy is a mindless avatar for his donors and a blind defender of the status quo system that is profiting from American sickness," he wrote on X. "At every turn during Casey’s confirmation, Bill Cassidy worked to delay her and smear her. For several months last year, Bill Cassidy knew Casey’s due date. He demanded to schedule her hearing on her due date, and at the last minute scheduled it two days later."
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01 Associated Press But she has been a more vocal advocate for vaccination than Kennedy, and at times she has criticized the Trump administration’s handling of health issues as “embarrassing.”
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02 The Atlantic Earlier this month, the White House seemed to still believe that Means could be confirmed. The president invited her to a roundtable for several MAHA influencers. (Among them was Kelly Ryerson, who told me that the group made clear to administration officials that Means’s troubled nomination was killing the mood of MAHA activists.) But when I spoke with Means this afternoon, shortly after Trump’s announcement, she told me that it had become obvious, over the past week, that she would not become the next surgeon general. In our conversation, Means emphasized that she remained upbeat about MAHA, but she was clearly frustrated by what she repeatedly described as a victory for the status quo.
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03 ABC News Saphier has generally indicated support for vaccines. In a video on Fox News Digital, Saphier said the majority of research shows there is no causal link between the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine and an increased risk of autism.
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04 NPR News She said she will continue to "help with progress on this movement how I can." Means pitched ideas popular with MAHA
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05 Fox News He described Means as a "strong MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) Warrior" who "will continue to fight for MAHA on the many important health issues facing our Country."
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06 HuffPost In 2022, Saphier falsely claimed that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would imminently require all schoolchildren to be vaccinated for COVID-19. The lie was then repeated ad nauseam on Fox News, including by Tucker Carlson.
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07 NBC News 00:42 Trump reacts to Iran playing in U.S. World Cup games 00:46 Emily Blunt, Stanley Tucci receive Walk of Fame stars
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08 The Daily Wire Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA), a trained physician and chairman of the Senate health committee, stopped short of supporting Means. Senators Murkowski (R-AL) and Collins (R-ME), also members of the committee, held reservations.
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