President Trump will nominate Dr. Mehmet Oz of television fame to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services — one of the largest, most costly agencies in America. This would be his first government job, if confirmed. 

“America is facing a Healthcare Crisis, and there may be no Physician more qualified and capable than Dr. Oz to Make America Healthy Again. He is an eminent Physician, Heart Surgeon, Inventor, and World-Class Communicator, who has been at the forefront of healthy living for decades,” Trump said in a statement Tuesday. 

The president-elect said Dr. Oz will be working with the secretary of health and human services nominee, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to “take on the illness industrial complex, and all the horrible chronic diseases left in its wake.”

Dr. Oz rose to prominence as a gifted cardiothoracic surgeon during the 1990s and the inventor of multiple technologies that improved heart surgery outcomes. By 2009, thanks to his friendship with television personality Oprah Winfrey, Dr. Oz was able to launch his second career as a daytime show host who provided medical recommendations for viewers. 

The agency that Dr. Oz may soon lead is one of the most sprawling in the country. Nearly half of all Americans get their primary healthcare coverage through CMS, including via Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and the Affordable Care Act’s healthcare marketplace. 

Some Democrats were quick to mock the choice of Dr. Oz as CMS administrator. “All of government is now a reality show,” President Obama’s chief political advisor, David Axelrod, wrote on X. 

But one Democrat whose opinion actually matters in terms of getting Dr. Oz confirmed, Senator Fetterman, said he is open to voting for the doctor should he commit to protecting vital health insurance programs. “Well, I’ve been very, very clear — if Dr Oz agrees to protect and preserve Medicaid and Medicare, I’m absolutely going to vote for the dude,” Mr. Fetterman told NOTUS on Tuesday. “I don’t have hard feelings or anything, I’d have a beer with the dude.”

Notably, Mr. Fetterman has more of a relationship with Dr. Oz than most of his colleagues, given that he defeated the man when he was the Republican nominee for Senate in Pennsylvania in 2022. “We do have a history, but I don’t have any bitterness,” Mr. Fetterman said Tuesday. “I don’t hold anything against him, as long as he’s willing to protect and preserve Medicaid and Medicaid.”

Dr. Oz had faced fierce criticism in the past for pushing what many have called pseudoscientific, cure-all pills and supplements. An epidemiologist for the New England Complex Systems Institute, Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding, wrote on X on Tuesday, “Never forget Dr Oz, who pushed and helped sell dubious and potentially dangerous medical products and advice on his TV show — is Trump’s pick to run Medicare and Medicaid.