Trump picks Dr. Oz to run Medicare, Medicaid services

President-elect Donald Trump announced Tuesday he has picked TV’s Dr. Oz to tally the sprawling Medicare and Medicaid programs.

As administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Oz volition pb the national wellness programs that supply those services to tens of millions of retirees, children and mediocre people, oregon astir fractional of each Americans, Trump said.

The incoming president said Oz, a famed bosom surgeon, volition beryllium tasked with working alongside Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the vaccine skeptic whom Trump has nominated to beryllium the adjacent Secretary of Health and Human Services.

“There whitethorn beryllium nary doc much qualified and susceptible than Dr. Oz to Make America Healthy Again,” Trump said successful a connection posted connected societal media. “He volition instrumentality connected the unwellness concern analyzable and each the horrible chronic diseases successful its wake.”

Oz, who’s an migrant from Turkey and holds dual citizenship, narrowly lost a 2022 pro-Trump bid for Senate to Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pennsylvania).

He’s the latest successful a drawstring of telegenic nominations from Trump, who has already tapped Fox News play big Pete Hegseth to tally the Department of Defense and Fox Business big Sean Duffy arsenic Secretary of Transportation.

Oz, who has nary authorities experience, volition beryllium charged with overseeing an bureau that accounts for astir a 4th of each national spending.

Trump said Oz would request to slash costs, particularly aft Elon Musk has threatened to chopped astir $2 trillion successful yearly national spending arsenic caput of a recently created Department of Government Efficiency.

The presumption requires Senate confirmation but Oz is apt to look little absorption than arguable picks similar RFK Jr., Hegseth and ex-Rep. Matt Gaetz, whose nomination arsenic lawyer general has drawn dense disapproval arsenic he’s facing allegations that helium paid underage girls for sex during drug-fueled parties and luxury vacations.

“He volition besides chopped discarded and fraud wrong our nation’s astir costly agency,” Trump said of Oz.