President-elect Donald Trump nominated many leading healthcare experts who opposed coronavirus-era lockdowns, focused on ending chronic illness, and want to overhaul America’s healthcare bureaucracies.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary
Trump in mid-November nominated former third-party candidate Robert F. Kennedy to lead the Health and Human Services (HHS) Department. If confirmed, Kennedy would have purview over many critical healthcare regulatory agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and more.
Trump has promised to let Kennedy “go wild” with healthcare policy over food after the third-party candidate dropped out and endorsed Trump’s bid to become the 47th president.
Kennedy would likely have sway at HHS to enact his “Make America Healthy Again,” or MAHA, agenda.
This would include ending what he believes is the regulatory capture plaguing agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by the hands of the pharmaceutical industry.
He wrote in October:
FDA’s war on public health is about to end. This includes its aggressive suppression of psychedelics, peptides, stem cells, raw milk, hyperbaric therapies, chelating compounds, ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, vitamins, clean foods, sunshine, exercise, nutraceuticals and anything else that advances human health and can’t be patented by Pharma. If you work for the FDA and are part of this corrupt system, I have two messages for you: 1. Preserve your records, and 2. Pack your bags.
Kennedy’s priority issues would likely include childhood vaccination schedules, fluoride in drinking water, and processed vegetable oils in processed foods. He would likely push the federal government to advise local governments to stop including fluoride in water.
Dr. Marty Makary for Food and Drug Administration Commissioner
On Friday, Trump nominated Makary, a Johns Hopkins transplant surgeon and author who argued against pandemic lockdowns, to lead the FDA.
“He will work under the leadership of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to, among other things, 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,” Trump said in a statement.
Makary became famous during the coronavirus pandemic as an experienced medical expert willing to challenge the medical establishment’s orthodox stance on policies pushing lockdowns and other strict pandemic-era measures.
The transplant surgeon frequently questioned the efficacy of lockdowns and enforcing mask-wearing for children. He has opposed the vaccine mandates and questioned the utility of booster coronavirus vaccines.
Makary argued that many Americans likely became immune to the coronavirus through “herd immunity” by April 2021, which would reduce the threat that the virus posed to the country.
“One reason public health officials may be afraid to acknowledge the effectiveness of natural immunity is that they fear it will lead some to choose getting the infection over vaccination. That’s a legitimate concern. But we can encourage all Americans to get vaccinated while still being honest about the data,” Makary wrote in an op-ed for the Washington Post.
Makary, like Kennedy, has often criticized America’s food supply, believing it makes Americans sicker and unhealthy.
“We’ve got a poisoned food supply. We’ve got pesticides. We’ve got ultra-processed foods and all sorts of things that have been in the blind spots in modern medicine,” Makary said in September.
If confirmed by the Senate, Makary would seek to overhaul the FDA’s “erratic” bureaucracy, stating that the agenda was often too eager to approve opioids and too cautious to approve antiviral pills to treat the coronavirus. He also called for a ban on cell phones in schools and questioned prescribing anti-anxiety and anti-obesity medications for children.
“For too long, FDA leaders have acted like a crusty librarian who gets annoyed when someone wants to borrow a book. But then give preference to people they like,” the FDA nominee said in a 2021 op-ed for Fox News.
“What he is really focused on is this concept that we can’t keep drugging our nation’s children,” Makary said of Kennedy.
Dr. and former Rep. Dave Weldon (F-FL) to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
“In addition to being a Medical Doctor for 40 years, and an Army Veteran, Dave has been a respected conservative leader on fiscal and social issues, and served on the Labor/HHS Appropriations Subcommittee, working for Accountability on HHS and CDC Policy and Budgeting,” Trump said his Friday announcement.
The president-elect added, “Dave also served in a leading role in Government Oversight and Reform Committee Hearings, addressing issues within HHS and CDC. Dave has successfully worked with the CDC to enact a ban on patents for human embryos.”
Weldon, a physician who served in Congress for 14 years from 1995 to 2009, often raised concerns about potential risks with vaccines, similar to Kennedy.
During his tenure in office, he introduced legislation to move oversight of vaccine safety from the CDC to an independent agency within HHS. He notably raised issues about the alleged independence of the government’s vaccine safety review process and suggested that the mercury-based preservative once commonly used in vaccines, thimerosal, was linked to autism.
Weldon served on the Labor and HHS Appropriations Subcommittee, focusing largely on accountability, which may give Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) task force more options to remove waste and inefficient bureaucracy.
Trump taps Dr. Janette Nesheiwat for Surgeon General
Nesheiwat is a Fox News contributor who serves the medical director at CityMD, a network of urgent care centers in New York and New Jersey.
“Dr. Nesheiwat is a fierce advocate and strong communicator for preventive medicine and public health. She is committed to ensuring that Americans have access to affordable, quality healthcare, and believes in empowering individuals to take charge of their health to live longer, healthier lives,” Trump said in a statement on Friday.
Nesheiwat, like the other Trump healthcare nominees, criticized the CDC’s guidance on coronavirus vaccine mandates, arguing that, especially for children, the risks associated with the vaccine may outweigh the benefits. She has also attacked the government coronavirus mandates during the pandemic.
The surgeon general nominee also slammed the American Academy of Pediatrics’ push to treat children with gender dysphoria with puberty blockers, calling it “unethical” in August 2022.
Dr. Mehmet Oz was nominated for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)
On Tuesday, Trump nominated Oz to lead CMS, an agency that has more than a $1 trillion budget and can influence drug price negotiations medication coverage, the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), and much more.
Oz has criticized the CDC’s recommendations that young people get booster coronavirus vaccine shots.
The CMS nominee will play a part in the next drug price negotiations, which was created through the Inflation Reduction Act.
Oz has strongly backed Medicare Advantage, an increasingly popular option for seniors. This runs in strong contrast to the Biden-Harris administration, which cut Medicare Advantage while claiming that a potential future Trump administration would cut entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security.
Oz would also work to reform Obamacare to the extent President-elect Trump wants to reform President Barack Obama’s landmark legislation.
Make America Healthy Again
Many of Trump’s picks serve as part of Trump’s mission to end chronic disease, handle issues surrounding America’s food supply, and combat bloated and potentially captured bureaucracies.
Trump said in his statement announcing Robert F. Kennedy as his HHS nominee:
The Safety and Health of all Americans is the most important role of any Administration, and HHS will play a big role in helping ensure that everybody will be protected from harmful chemicals, pollutants, pesticides, pharmaceutical products, and food additives that have contributed to the overwhelming Health Crisis in this Country.
He added, “Mr. Kennedy will restore these Agencies to the traditions of Gold Standard Scientific Research, and beacons of Transparency, to end the Chronic Disease epidemic, and to Make America Great and Healthy Again!”
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on X @SeanMoran3.
