President Donald Trump revoked Dr. Casey Means as his pick for surgeon general and replaced her with former Fox News contributor Dr. Nicole Saphier on Thursday as Means’ nomination has been stalled in the Senate amid some Republican pushback.
Dr. Casey Means, nominee to be surgeon general, testifies during her confirmation Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee confirmation hearing in Dirksen building on Wednesday, February 25, 2026. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Trump blamed Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., for blocking Means’ nomination in a Truth Social post announcing the switch, after Cassidy pressed her on her views about vaccines during a Senate hearing in February.
Trump urged Republicans to vote Cassidy out of office in the upcoming Republican primary.
In addition to Cassidy, at least two other Republicans on the health committee, Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said they had reservations about Means, complicating her path to confirmation as the committee requires unanimous approval from its GOP members to advance her, assuming all Democrats object.
Saphier is a former Fox News contributor and radiologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
She is Trump’s third pick for surgeon general after he withdrew Dr. Janette Nesheiwat in May last year from the Senate confirmation process amid questions about discrepancies on her resume.
Saphier, Trump said, is 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.”
Means was a prominent member of Trump’s MAGA circle, co-authoring the book, “Good Energy,” with her brother and White House health adviser, Calley Means., The book is widely viewed as a blueprint for the Trump administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement. During her Senate hearing, she declined to endorse the measles and flu shots for all Americans and instead recommended people consult with their physicians. Her medical credentials also raised questions—she placed her medical license in voluntary inactive status in Oregon and she left her surgical residency in her final year, instead pursuing functional medicine, according to The Washington Post. She has centered much of her work around the links between food and chronic disease, which is a key component of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s health messaging. Trump indicated earlier this year he was questioning the fate of Means’ nomination, telling reporters “we have a lot of great candidates.”
He lauded Means on Truth Social shortly before he announced her replacement, calling her a “strong MAHA warrior,” referring to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement, and adding that Means will “continue to fight for MAHA on the many important Health issues facing our country.”
Trump pulls his surgeon general pick and makes third nomination for the role (CNN)
MAHA’s political power tested as surgeon general pick stalls (Washington Post)
Trump pulls Dr. Casey Means' nomination for surgeon general, announces replacement (NBC)
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