In a flurry of picks on Friday evening, Trump named three choices for top health jobs. Together they would help the incoming president shift the priorities of agencies that are key to public health.
In a series of high-profile announcements Friday evening, President-elect Trump made his picks for three top health positions in the new administration.
Johns Hopkins surgeon Marty Makary is his choice for Food and Drug Administration Commissioner. He wants former Rep. Dave Weldon, a Republican from Florida, to serve as Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, a Fox News contributor, is in line to be the next surgeon general.
Trump made all three announcements on Truth Social and in press releases. Together the picks would help the incoming president shift the priorities of agencies that are linchpins in public health. But the choices also come with controversy.Dr. Marty Makary for FDA commissioner
A surgical oncologist at Johns Hopkins University, Makary’s selection for the top job at the FDA is not unexpected given his work with the first Trump administration on issues like surprise medical billing. He’s also recently made statements indicating support for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s choice to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, and Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” platform.
Earlier this year, Makary appeared alongside Kennedy in a Congressional roundtable on health and nutrition, where he criticized federal health agencies for not prioritizing chronic diseases and said “the greatest perpetrator of misinformation has been the United States government with the food pyramid.”
“We have the most overmedicated, sickest population in the world and no one is talking about root causes”, he said. “We have poisoned our food supply.”
In the announcement, Trump pledged that Makary would work with Kennedy to “properly evaluate harmful chemicals poisoning our Nation’s food supply and drugs and biologics being given to our Nation’s youth, so that we can finally address the Childhood Chronic Disease Epidemic.
