US President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday selected Mehmet Oz, a former TV talk show host and heart surgeon, to head the agency that oversees health insurance programs for millions of older, poor and disabled Americans.
He also tapped billionaire professional wrestling mogul Linda McMahon to be his secretary of education, tasked with overseeing an agency he has promised to dismantle, and named Wall Street executive Howard Lutnick to lead the commerce department.
Oz, who ran a failed 2022 bid to represent Pennsylvania in the US Senate, has been an outspoken supporter of Trump and in recent days expressed support for Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s nomination for the nation’s top health agency, the Department of Health and Human Services (HSS).
Photo: AFP
“Dr. Oz will be a leader in incentivizing Disease Prevention, so we get the best results in the World for every dollar we spend on Healthcare in our Great Country,” Trump said in a statement. “He will also cut waste and fraud within our Country’s most expensive Government Agency, which is a third of our Nation’s Healthcare spend, and a quarter of our entire National Budget.”
As the administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Oz would report to Kennedy.
“Americans need better research on healthy lifestyle choices from unbiased scientists, and @robertfkennedyjr can help as HHS secretary,” Oz said in an Instagram post last week.
Photo: Reuters
If confirmed by the US Senate, Oz would be responsible for the programs — Medicaid, Medicare and the Affordable Care Act — that more than half the country relies on for health insurance.
Medicaid provides nearly-free healthcare coverage to millions of the poorest children and adults in the US, while Medicare gives older Americans and the disabled access to health insurance. The Affordable Care Act is the former US president Barack Obama-era program that offers health insurance plans to millions of Americans who do not qualify for government-assisted health insurance, but do not get insurance through their employer.
Trump has said he wants to overhaul the Affordable Care Act, but has said he only has “concepts of a plan” for how that redesign would operate.
During his first term in office, he tried unsuccessfully to scrap the program altogether. Last month, Republican US House Speaker Mike Johnson promised that healthcare reform would be a big part of Trump’s second term agenda.
McMahon, Trump’s pick for education secretary, led the Small Business Administration during the former president’s initial term from 2017 to 2019 and twice ran unsuccessfully for US Senate.
She served on the Connecticut Board of Education for a year starting in 2009 and has spent years on the board of trustees for Sacred Heart University in Connecticut. She is seen as a relative unknown in education circles, although she has expressed support for charter schools and school choice.
“Linda will use her decades of Leadership experience, and deep understanding of both Education and Business, to empower the next Generation of American Students and Workers, and make America Number One in Education in the World,” Trump said in a statement.
In nominating McMahon, Trump is rewarding a loyal backer of his movement who, along with Lutnick, has also helped lead his transition team. She was with him on Tuesday as he attended a launch of SpaceX’s Starship craft in Texas.
After her time in the Trump administration, McMahon became the chair of the board of the America First Policy Institute, a think tank created by Trump supporters and former officials who have been preparing for his return to government.
McMahon has also been chair of the pro-Trump America First Action SuperPAC [political action committee].
She is married to Vince McMahon, who stepped down as World Wrestling Entertainment’s CEO in 2022 amid a company investigation into allegations that he engaged in sexual battery and trafficking. He also resigned as executive chairman of the board of TKO Group Holdings in January, although he has denied the allegations.
If confirmed by the Republican-led US Senate, Linda McMahon would be asked to bring the nation’s schools and universities in line with Trump’s vision of education. Trump has made sweeping promises centered on removing what he sees as “left-wing indoctrination” in the US’ schools.
Trump has vowed to cut federal money for “any school pushing Critical Race Theory, transgender insanity, and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content on our children.”
He has promised to fight university diversity initiatives, saying he will open civil rights investigations and fine colleges “up to the entire amount of their endowment.”
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