President Donald Trump, on April 30, withdrew the nomination of Dr. Casey Means to be surgeon general after the panel overseeing health agencies declined to vote on the nominee.
Trump also announced that he is selecting Dr. Nicole Saphier to be surgeon general.
“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 wrote on Truth Social.
Saphier is a radiologist serving as director of breast imaging at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New Jersey. Saphier is also a contributor to Fox News.
She could not be reached for comment by publication time.
Trump said Saphier will help advance the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement.
The Department of Health and Human Services declined to comment on the nomination.
Trump nominated Means in 2025. A confirmation hearing before the Senate Health Committee was postponed because she went into labor.
Means answered questions before the panel in February. She drew criticism from Democrats as well as several Republicans, who took issue with her declining to endorse vaccination the way they wanted.
Means said she supports vaccines as well as patients having conversations with doctors about medical interventions, including vaccines.
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), chairman of the Senate Health Committee, voted to confirm Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. but has since taken issue with some vaccine-related changes that health agencies have made under Kennedy.
Since the February hearing, Cassidy had not brought the Means nomination to a vote.
Cassidy “stood in the way” of the nominee, Trump wrote on Thursday.
“By sabotaging this appointment, Bill Cassidy once again did the dirty work for entrenched interests seeking to stall the MAHA movement and protect the very status quo that has made America the sickest nation on earth,” Kennedy, who recommended Means to Trump, said on X.
There has been no Senate-confirmed surgeon general during Trump’s second term.
Trump said that Means would “continue to fight for MAHA” and called for Louisiana voters to oust Cassidy in the upcoming election.
Trump has previously endorsed Rep. Julia Letlow (R-La.), who is challenging Cassidy along with Louisiana Treasurer John Fleming.
Letlow said in a statement that what happened was “yet another example of Bill Cassidy betraying President Donald Trump and Louisiana Republicans.”
Cassidy and Fleming did not respond to requests for comment by publication time.