Trump Selects Dr Oz as CMS Administrator

President-elect Donald Trump will nominate heart surgeon turned television personality and politician Mehmet Oz, MD, also known as Dr Oz, to lead CMS.

In a statement on his Truth Social account, Trump said there may be "no physician more qualified and capable than Dr Oz to make America healthy again." He noted that Oz will work closely with Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who has been nominated to lead HHS, to "take on the illness industrial complex and all the horrible chronic diseases left in its wake."

Trump added that Oz will "cut waste and fraud within our country's most expensive government agency, which is a third of our nation's health care spend and a quarter of our entire national budget."

In 2022, Oz ran for a Pennsylvania US Senate seat, announcing his bid through an op-ed in The Washington Examiner.

"During the pandemic, I learned that when you mix politics and medicine, you get politics instead of solutions," Oz wrote. "That's why I'm running for the US Senate: to help fix the problems and to help us heal."

He earned Trump's endorsement after opponent Dave McCormick told the former president he could not support his claims that the 2020 election was stolen. Oz beat McCormick in the primary by less than 1000 votes, but he ultimately lost the Senate seat to John Fetterman by 263,000 votes.

Prior to his political ventures, Oz received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University and a joint MD and MBA from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Wharton School of Business. He was a frequent guest on Oprah Winfrey's show to provide medical advice. In 2009, he went on to launch his own show, "The Dr Oz Show," which earned him 9 Daytime Emmy Awards; the show ended in 2022 once he launched his political campaign.

However, his advice was considered deceiving. During a Senate committee hearing in 2014, lawmakers accused Oz of misleading consumers about green coffee bean extract, which he promoted on his show as a weight loss supplement despite it not being clinically proven or FDA approved for weight loss.

His controversial medical advice was later used against him by political opponent Fetterman, who called it "quack medicine" via social media posts and campaign ads during the 2022 Senate race. Despite past criticism, Trump expressed confidence in Oz's abilities.

"I have known Dr Oz for many years, and I am confident he will fight to ensure everyone in America receives the best possible health care so our country can be great and healthy again," Trump wrote in his post.