Trump ends MAHA activist and wellness influencer Casey Means’s bid for surgeon general
On Thursday the president announced he is nominating Nicole Saphier, a radiologist and Fox News contributor, as the nation’s top doctor
Brendan SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images
Make America Health Again (MAHA) activist and wellness influencer Casey Means is out of the running to be President Donald Trump’s nominee for surgeon general. On Thursday the president announced that he is nominating radiologist and Fox News contributor Nicole Saphier for the job instead—she is Trump’s third pick to be the “nation’s doctor” since his second term in office began.
The decision to pull Means from the nomination comes a little less than a year after Trump first tapped her for the role in May 2025. Means’s path to the job had become mired in the Senate amid growing concern among lawmakers, including Republican senator and physician Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, over her stances on vaccines, abortion pills and alternative medicine.
A graduate of the Stanford University School of Medicine, Means dropped out of a surgical residency in 2018 and founded an alternative medicine practice. She also co-authored a book that promotes organic foods and criticizes processed foods and sugars as being sources of “bad energy.” A close ally of Department of Health and Human Services leader Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Means has claimed that improper diet, poor sleep and lack of exercise are responsible for a number of ailments, including diabetes, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. Means co-founded a “functional medicine” start-up called Levels, which markets glucose monitors to healthy people.
On supporting science journalism
If you’re enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.
Trump’s new nominee Saphier is a radiologist and director of breast imaging at Memorial Sloan Kettering Monmouth in New Jersey. She holds a medical degree from the Ross University School of Medicine and completed a residency at Maricopa Integrated Health System (now Valleywise Health) and a fellowship at the Mayo Clinic.
“Dr. Nicole Saphier is an accomplished physician who has practiced radiology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering and has been outspoken voice on breast cancer prevention, intrusive COVID-19 mandates, the pollicization of science, and the federal government’s role in America’s chronic disease epidemic,” said White House Spokesperson Kush Desai in a statement. “She will be a powerful asset for President Trump and work tirelessly to deliver on every facet of his MAHA agenda.”
The replacement of Means with Saphier drew cautious praise from health care advocates. Anahita Dua, a surgeon and founder and chair of Healthcare for Action, a Democratic political action committee that supports health care workers running for Congress, said she was “grateful” that Trump pulled Means’s nomination.
“Saphier at least has real world experience with treating patients and a better understanding of the ins and outs of our healthcare system, whereas Means had zero experience in the field,” she said in a statement provided to Scientific American. “It is interesting that President Trump has elevated yet another person tied to Fox News. As a physician, I am hopeful that Saphier will stay true to science and facts if she indeed becomes the next Surgeon General of the United States.”
Others have been less optimistic. Amira Roess, a professor of global health and epidemiology at George Mason University’s College of Public Health, argued in a statement provided to Scientific American that the switch “probably doesn’t matter all that much” because the administration’s goal is “to relax regulations meant to protect our air, water, food and medicine. Whoever is the face of that as Surgeon General is unlikely to be able to do anything to reverse those declines.”
Saphier’s past comments have put her at odds with some medical professionals, said Mariah Wellman, an assistant professor at Michigan State University and author of In Search of Wellness: How Social Media Influencers Transformed an Industry, in a statement provided to Scientific American. While dismissing Means was “a positive move because she is more wellness influencer than medical professional,” Wellman said, she added that she was unsure if Saphier was more or less likely to be confirmed.
“While she is a practicing physician, she is also an author whose two books reflect her views on public health which are staunchly rooted in MAHA ideology. In her 2020 book [Make America Healthy Again: How Bad Behavior and Big Government Caused a Trillion-Dollar Crisis], Saphier described her belief that health is firmly the individual’s responsibility and blamed high healthcare costs on American citizens’ lifestyle decisions. In her 2021 book [Panic Attack: Playing Politics with Science in the Fight against COVID-19], she criticized pandemic-era shutdowns and school closures, the use of face masks, and the World Health Organization’s response efforts,” Wellman said.
Saphier is primarily known for her clinical work and for her role as a contributor to Fox News and Fox Business. As Wellman noted, Saphier is also the author of two books about health care.
Make America Healthy Again centered around the concept of personal responsibility in health care; Saphier argued that healthier lifestyles, not socialized medicine, are the key to reducing the costs of treatment. In Panic Attack, she accused Democratic leaders of causing harm with actions such as keeping schools closed during the pandemic and argued “knee-jerk anti-Trumpism” has played a role in the politicization of science.
“Nicole is a STAR physician who has spent her career guiding women facing breast cancer through their diagnosis and treatment while tirelessly advocating to increase early cancer detection and prevention, while at the same time working with men and women on all other forms of cancer diagnoses and treatments,” Trump said in a social media post. “She is also an INCREDIBLE COMMUNICATOR, who makes complicated health issues more easily understood by all Americans. Dr. Nicole Saphier will do great things for our Country, and help, ‘MAKE AMERICA HEALTHY AGAIN.’”
Neither the White House nor HHS replied to requests for comment.
Editor’s Note (4/30/26): This is a developing story and may be updated.
It’s Time to Stand Up for Science
If you enjoyed this article, I’d like to ask for your support. Scientific American has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history.
I’ve been a Scientific American subscriber since I was 12 years old, and it helped shape the way I look at the world. SciAm always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. I hope it does that for you, too.
If you subscribe to Scientific American, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.
In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, can’t-miss newsletters, must-watch videos, challenging games, and the science world’s best writing and reporting. You can even gift someone a subscription.
There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you’ll support us in that mission.
