{"id":216789,"date":"2026-05-01T16:41:32","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T16:41:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/216789\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T16:41:32","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T16:41:32","slug":"trump-picks-nicole-saphier-for-surgeon-general-after-withdrawing-casey-means-nomination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/216789\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Picks Nicole Saphier for Surgeon General After Withdrawing Casey Means Nomination"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Trump has withdrawn the nomination of Dr. Casey Means, his pick for surgeon general, whose confirmation was stalled amid opposition, including from some Republicans, over her views on vaccines and her unconventional approach<\/a> to medicine.<\/p>\n

In a social media post on Thursday, Mr. Trump announced a new nominee: Dr. Nicole B. Saphier,<\/a> a radiologist who has a wellness podcast and has appeared frequently on Fox News. She is the director of breast imaging at MSK Monmouth in New Jersey, a branch of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan.<\/p>\n

Mr. Trump described Dr. Saphier as \u201ca STAR physician who has spent her career guiding women facing breast cancer\u201d and \u201can INCREDIBLE COMMUNICATOR, who makes complicated health issues more easily understood by all Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unlike Dr. Means, Dr. Saphier, 44, does not appear to be a heroine in Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.\u2019s Make America Healthy Again movement, whose leaders view her as too conventional. She has praised vaccines as lifesaving and has at times criticized Mr. Kennedy as an ineffective messenger. She has also been critical of Dr. Means.<\/p>\n

But she has also embraced some of the tenets of the secretary\u2019s agenda. She rejects vaccine mandates and wants the childhood vaccine schedule to be flexible enough to allow some parents to delay giving infants their shots. Mr. Kennedy called her \u201ca longtime warrior for the MAHA movement\u201d in a social media post<\/a> on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan we change the timeline?\u201d Dr. Saphier asked during a 2025 podcast. \u201cDoes every single child need all of these vaccines? Because the reality is not all vaccines are created equal; lumping them together just completely erases the science.\u201d<\/p>\n

Years before Mr. Kennedy popularized the \u201cMake America Healthy Again\u201d slogan, Dr. Saphier published a book under that name. She is also the author of a book called \u201cPanic Attack: Playing Politics With Science in the Fight Against Covid-19,\u201d which railed against some lockdown measures pushed by Democratic lawmakers. She has also slammed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for its management of the Covid pandemic and said in particular that the agency has misrepresented the risk of Covid to children.<\/p>\n

Mr. Trump\u2019s decision to withdraw Dr. Means\u2019s nomination was unexpected, but perhaps inevitable. Three Republican health committee members \u2014 Senators Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, the chairman, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska \u2014 refused to say whether they would vote for her.<\/p>\n

In another social media post on Thursday, Mr. Trump assailed Mr. Cassidy who, he said, \u201cstood in the way of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.\u2019s Nominee, Casey Means, for the important position of U.S. Surgeon General.\u201d (Mr. Kennedy does not make nominations; the president does.) Mr. Kennedy, who called<\/a> Dr. Means \u201cone of the MAHA movement\u2019s most powerful evangelists,\u201d accused Mr. Cassidy of doing \u201cthe dirty work for entrenched interests.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesman for Mr. Cassidy did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Dr. Saphier\u2019s chances of being confirmed are difficult to predict. Her views on vaccination appear, in certain respects, similar to those of Dr. Means; both have said vaccines save lives, and both have said parents need to make vaccination decisions alongside their doctors. But unlike Dr. Means, who did not emphasize her views on vaccines, Dr. Saphier has hit the issue head-on.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to be very clear here: When vaccination rates go down, preventable diseases come back,\u201d Dr. Saphier said recently on her \u201cWellness Unmasked\u201d podcast. \u201cThat\u2019s not political. That\u2019s epidemiology; that\u2019s reality. And at the same time, Americans are also making something else clear. They want transparency. They want choice, and they want to make decisions alongside their doctors \u2014 not to be told what to do by shifting policies or unclear messaging, and those two things can actually coexist.\u201d<\/p>\n

She went on: \u201cBottom line is this: Vaccine is one of the most effective tools we have to prevent serious illness. That\u2019s true, but if we continue to send mixed signals, we risk losing the public\u2019s trust entirely, and once that is gone, it\u2019s very hard to get back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Saphier had a somewhat unconventional path into medicine. She became pregnant when she was 17 and has spoken about her experience as a teenage mother.<\/a> (She has since had two more children.) She went to medical school at Ross University in Barbados and has also embraced alternative medicine, saying she lives her life combining Western medicine with \u201cEastern techniques\u201d and \u201cnatural remedies.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

She describes herself as a part-time farmer on her Instagram account and sells a line of supplements called DropRx, including herbal tinctures for stress relief and focus.<\/p>\n

Dr. Saphier is Mr. Trump\u2019s third surgeon general nominee. His first was Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, a former Fox News contributor. But her nomination was withdrawn<\/a> in May 2025 after Laura Loomer, a right-wing influencer who is close to the president, opposed her. Ms. Loomer also opposed the nomination of Dr. Means.<\/p>\n

Had she been confirmed, Dr. Means, a \u201cfunctional medicine\u201d physician and wellness influencer whose brother Calley Means is a top Kennedy adviser, would have been a highly unconventional surgeon general. While she is a licensed physician and a graduate of a top-notch medical school, Stanford University, her license is on \u201cinactive\u201d status in Oregon. She is also a vocal critic of the medical establishment.<\/p>\n

In addition to being grilled on vaccines, Dr. Means faced sharp questions from Ms. Collins, the Maine Republican, about her experimentation with psychedelic therapy after the death of her mother. After Dr. Means testified that \u201cAmericans are ready to hear about spirituality as it pertains to medicine,\u201d Ms. Collins said she understood spirituality, but added, \u201cIt\u2019s the link to illicit drugs that I\u2019m having a hard time with.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an interview Thursday after Mr. Trump\u2019s announcement, Dr. Means said she would continue to be an advocate for the issues she is passionate about. She also praised Mr. Trump, who has angered many MAHA influencers<\/a> over a recent executive order aimed at ramping up production of the weedkiller glyphosate, which some scientists have linked to cancer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a really positive cultural movement happening right now where people are asking the government to help them get healthy and help them stand up against corporate interests that are making us sick, and the government has said, yes, we\u2019ll help you,\u201d Dr. Means said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI genuinely believe in my heart that the Trump administration is trying to figure out how to move the balls forward,\u201d she added. \u201cYes, there are some setbacks, but there are some huge wins, and the way that culture has moved forward in the past year is monumental.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, Thursday was a day for MAHA wins and losses. Just days after MAHA activists and politicians from both parties rallied outside the Supreme Court to protest the administration\u2019s stance on glyphosate, the House stripped the farm bill of a provision that would have prevented states from warning consumers about the dangers of pesticides. Movement leaders celebrated.<\/p>\n

Less than two hours later, Mr. Trump announced he was withdrawing Dr. Means\u2019s nomination.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the glyphosate executive order fiasco, this feels like yet another gut punch to MAHA voters,\u201d Alex Clark, a wellness podcaster who works for the right-wing advocacy group Turning Point USA, said in a text message.<\/p>\n

Ms. Clark was among a number of MAHA leaders who met recently with the president and his aides, and told them that the confirmation of Dr. Means was important to them. Dr. Means also attended.<\/p>\n

\u201cPolitical games killed her nomination, and no Democrat was willing to fight for her because they didn\u2019t want to endorse a Trump nominee,\u201d said Vani Hari, another MAHA leader. \u201cIt\u2019s so toxic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Hari called Dr. Saphier \u201crather establishment.\u201d Ms. Clark called her \u201cterrifyingly pro-vaccine.\u201d Dr. Robert Malone, another ally of Mr. Kennedy, said Dr. Saphier was \u201cmoderate MAHA.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now it will be up to Mr. Cassidy, the health committee chairman, to set a schedule for Dr. Saphier\u2019s confirmation hearing. He has yet to schedule a hearing for another Trump health nominee, Dr. Erica Schwartz, his pick to lead the C.D.C.<\/a><\/p>\n

But Mr. Cassidy may be otherwise occupied, and has little incentive to take steps to please the Trump administration. He is facing a tough primary opponent in his re-election campaign in Louisiana. Mr. Trump, who is angry that Mr. Cassidy voted to convict him after he was impeached in 2021, has endorsed Mr. Cassidy\u2019s opponent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Trump has withdrawn the nomination of Dr. Casey Means, his pick for surgeon general, whose confirmation was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":215767,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[11288,82363,85132,85133,82362,1452,4670,4671,18378,52062,9,11,10,85131,4672,85130,85129,1069,1876,70440],"class_list":["post-216789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-appointments-and-executive-changes","tag-bill-1957","tag-calley","tag-casey-1987","tag-cassidy","tag-donald-j","tag-health-and-human-services-department","tag-kennedy","tag-means","tag-memorial-sloan-kettering-cancer-center","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-nicole-b","tag-robert-f-jr","tag-saphier","tag-surgeon-general-us","tag-trump","tag-united-states-politics-and-government","tag-vaccination-and-immunization"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}