On April 30, 2026, Trump withdrew Casey Means' stalled Surgeon General nomination and announced his third nominee for the role: Dr. Nicole Saphier, a radiologist and longtime Fox News medical contributor. The announcement came on Truth Social, where Trump described Saphier as 'a STAR physician' focused on cancer detection and prevention and 'an INCREDIBLE COMMUNICATOR' who simplifies health issues.
Saphier replaces Casey Means, the wellness influencer whose nomination languished after a tense February confirmation hearing. Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), a physician and chair of the Senate HELP Committee, blocked Means' path forward over her stance on vaccines and the fact that she did not hold an active medical license. Means' nomination stalled for months in the Senate before Trump pulled it.
Saphier is the director of breast imaging at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center-Monmouth and the author of several books on medicine and family health. Her qualifications as a radiologist are uncontested. The concerns are about her ideological track record on Fox News, where she has been a frequent contributor since the COVID era. Saphier has criticized COVID-19 vaccine and mask mandates and praised Trump for reinstating service members expelled from the military for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine. She has accused multiple media figures and politicians of antisemitism, and engaged in culture-war commentary including criticizing Pixar films like Inside Out and Elemental for what she has called 'woke ideologies.'
The nomination is the third for the role since Trump's second term began. The first was Janette Nesheiwat, a Fox News medical contributor whose nomination was withdrawn over plagiarism concerns and a misrepresented medical degree. The second was Casey Means. Saphier is now the third — and the second consecutive nominee with Fox News commentary roots and documented public skepticism about COVID-era vaccine policy. The Surgeon General is the federal government's primary public health communicator. Cassidy has not yet publicly indicated his position on Saphier; her path through the same HELP Committee that blocked Means is the immediate political question.
Update (September 17, 2026): at her Senate HELP Committee hearing on September 16, Saphier said, “I do not believe childhood vaccines cause autism,” and, asked by Chairman Bill Cassidy whether the MMR vaccine is “extremely lethal, as the president said,” replied, “I do not believe the MMR vaccine to be lethal. I believe the MMR vaccine is our greatest tool for combating measles.” Cassidy opened the hearing by saying the measles surge is “going to be a terrible legacy for this administration” (see A Coroner Ruled One Pennsylvania Baby Died of Measles, and the CDC Deleted Both Deaths From Its Count). The i Paper reported that Saphier owns Drop Rx, which sells herbal tinctures including one marketed with “natural aphrodisiac properties”; the Washington Post reported her ethics agreement says she will resign from it if confirmed.