ALEX KENT/THE NEW YORK TIMES
Dr. Casey Means, President Donald Trump’s nominee for surgeon general, testifies at her nomination hearing before the Senate health committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, on Feb. 25. With Means’ confirmation stalled on Capitol Hill, Trump withdrew the nomination today; he is instead nominating Dr. Nicole Saphier, a Fox News contributor and radiologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering.
President Donald Trump has withdrawn the nomination of Dr. Casey Means, his pick for surgeon general, whose confirmation was stalled on Capitol Hill amid opposition, including from some Republicans, in part over her views on vaccines.
In a post on Truth Social today, Trump announced that he is nominating Dr. Nicole B. Saphier, a radiologist and director of breast imaging at MSK Monmouth, a branch of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.
He described Saphier as “a STAR physician who has spent her career guiding women facing breast cancer” and “an INCREDIBLE COMMUNICATOR, who makes complicated health issues more easily understood by all Americans.”
In an earlier post today, Trump assailed Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., the chair of the Senate health committee, saying that Cassidy had “stood in the way of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Nominee, Casey Means, for the important position of U.S. Surgeon General.” (Kennedy, who is the health secretary, does not make nominations; the president does.)
Means, a Stanford University-educated “functional medicine” physician and wellness influencer, did not make vaccines a central part of her identity as a doctor or a nominee. She couched her language carefully when asked about vaccination during her confirmation hearings. She said that “vaccines save lives,” but stopped short of recommending vaccines against measles and influenza, saying instead that decisions about vaccination should be made jointly by parents and their pediatricians.
Means was not immediately available for comment.
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Cassidy had not stated a position on Means. But even if he had supported her, two other key Republicans on the health panel — Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — have refused to commit to voting in favor of her, which has kept her nomination stuck in committee.
The withdrawal of her nomination is bound to be a deep disappointment for the Make America Healthy Again movement, whose leaders met recently with the president and his aides, and told them that the confirmation of Means was important to them.
On Wednesday, two senior administration officials, who requested anonymity to speak candidly about Trump’s health policies, declined to say what the administration’s strategy was for getting Means confirmed or whether Trump had leaned on senators to support her.
Trump is angry with Cassidy, who voted to convict the president of an impeachment charge of “incitement of insurrection” in 2021 and has endorsed Cassidy’s opponent in next month’s primary election in Louisiana.
Means is the sister of Calley Means, a top adviser to Kennedy. In a lengthy post on social platform X, Calley Means also assailed Cassidy. “I am so proud of Casey, and the way she conducted herself during this process,” he wrote. “I am also proud to work for the Trump admin, who has marshaled the disruptive MAHA message and driven victories against dark forces personified by Bill Cassidy. At every step, Casey’s message of hope and empowerment was thwarted by Bill Cassidy.”
Saphier is Trump’s third surgeon general nominee. His first was Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, a former Fox News contributor. But her nomination was withdrawn in May 2025 when Laura Loomer, a right-wing influencer who is close to the president, opposed her. Loomer also opposed the nomination of Casey Means but said in an interview several months ago that she had given up that fight, because it appeared at the time that Means would be confirmed.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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