--- title: "Trump Nominates Television Quack Dr. Oz to Run Medicare and Medicaid" description: "Donald Trump has nominated television doctor and alleged animal cruelty doer Mehmet Oz to run the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services." date: "2024-11-21" modified: "2024-11-21" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/puppy-killer-trump-cabinet" categories: - "Developments" - "Health & Medicine" tags: - "donald trump" - "dr. oz" - "health" - "trump administration" --- # Trump Nominates Television Quack Dr. Oz to Run Medicare and Medicaid ![Donald Trump has nominated television doctor and alleged animal cruelty doer Mehmet Oz to run the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.]() *HAZLETON PENNSYLVANIA - NOVEMBER 07: Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz speaks to supporters during an event at The Pines Eatery & Spirits on the final day before votes are cast November 7, 2022 in Hazleton, Pennsylvania. Oz is running against Democratic Pennsylvania Senate nominee John Fetterman. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images) \Image: Win McNamee/Getty Images\* President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Mehmet Oz, the controversial television doctor and failed Senate candidate for Pennsylvania who has routinely promoted [pseudoscientific and unproven]() medical treatments, to run the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS.) This is a critical position that — if Oz is confirmed — would put the [television personality]() at the helm of a vast and consequential public agency that oversees and facilitates health coverage for [roughly half of American citizens](). Oz is trained as a cardiothoracic surgeon and was once a professor and vice-chair of surgery at Columbia University — though Columbia has since [attempted to distance itself]() from the weight-loss [drug-slinging]() TV doc — but has no experience running government agencies or large healthcare or insurance programs. As [*The New York Times* notes](), the CMS oversees healthcare for over 150 million Americans, and is responsible for nearly one quarter of spending for the entire national budget. The CMS falls under the umbrella of the Department of Health and Human Services, to which the conspiracy-peddling anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has been nominated by the president-elect as head. "CMS touches virtually every family in America through Medicaid and Medicare, and it's probably the most challenging technical, policy and political job in government," Drew Altman, president of the health research group KFF, told the *NYT.* "Even small, almost daily decisions at CMS are billion-dollar decisions that affect industries and patients with serious illnesses who really care." Medically speaking, Oz's baggage runs deep. In addition to being yet another [Person on Television]() nominated to Trump's historically unqualified cabinet selections, Oz has [routinely come under fire]() from his peers for irresponsibly using his platform and position as a physician in ways that have worked to undermine public health. To wit: during his unsuccessful 2022 bid for Pennsylvania's senate seat, a cohort of over 150 Keystone State physicians signed a letter [condemning]() the TV star as a "major threat to public health" due to his well-documented history of spouting baseless and misleading medical treatments and theories, including dangerous misinformation about debunked [alleged COVID-19 treatments](). And back in 2014, [a study published in the ]()*[British Medical Journal]()* found that roughly half of all advice promoted on Oz's television show was either not supported or refuted by established medical research and knowledge. He's also [sort-of-kind-of defended some types of incest in the past](), so there's that. Oz's penchant for hawking dubious supplements has gotten him in trouble, too — including with lawmakers on Capitol Hill, [who in 2014 chastised the celebrity doctor]() for championing multiple green coffee bean-based weight loss supplements that were later discredited as snake oil. Oz called the coffee supplements "magic" drugs; according [to the Federal Trade Commission](), which sued the pills' creator, they didn't live up to purported benefits and were marketed illegally through "bogus weight-loss claims and fake news sites." "I don't get why you need to say this stuff when you know it's not true. When you have this amazing megaphone, why would you cheapen your show?" then-Democratic senator Claire McCaskill told Oz during the hearing, [as quoted at the time by *CNN*](). "With power comes a great deal of responsibility." Oz is also, remarkably, the [*second* alleged killer of puppies]() to receive a cabinet nomination (the first being North Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, who in her memoir [described]() shooting a puppy named Cricket in a gravel pit because it had annoyed her.) In 2022, [*Jezebel* conducted an extensive review]() of 75 studies published by Oz — who was billed as the studies' "principal investigator" — between the years 1989 and 2010, ultimately finding that his testing resulted in the deaths of 661 rabbits and rodents, 31 pigs, and 329 dogs and puppies, among other critters. Though animal testing is an unfortunate reality of medical research, there are animal welfare rules that those who conduct animal experimentation are required to follow — and Oz, according to whistleblower testimony and an internal Columbia investigation into his practices, frequently engaged in allegedly grotesque, inhumane, and poorly designed animal testing that violated the Animal Welfare Act. (Indeed, per *Jezebel's* reporting, Columbia was fined by the United States Department of Agriculture in 2004 for failure to comply with Animal Welfare Act standards.) Oz has established himself as a loyal Trump supporter in recent years, [earning a sought-after Trump endorsement]() during his 2022 campaign. In social media posts announcing the nomination, Trump presented Oz and Kennedy as a bundled, health system-smashing deal. "Dr. Oz will work closely with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to take on the illness industrial complex, and all the horrible chronic diseases left in its wake," Trump wrote yesterday on social media. Adding that Oz will focus on "Disease Prevention," Trump claimed the TV star "will also cut waste and fraud within our Country's most expensive Government Agency." As it stands, it's unclear how Oz might slash "waste and fraud" at the CMS. That said, the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 — a playbook for a second Trump presidency, created by the former president's allies, which outlines a sweeping consolidation of power within the executive branch and overhauls of government agencies — [calls for the use of AI within the agency]() to locate instances of Medicare and Medicaid [fraud](). (It's murky how it might actually deploy this imagined AI tool effectively or ethically, and didn't mention algorithmic bias, which has historically resulted in [measurable healthcare harms]().) To that end, Oz has historically been in favor of more expansive universal healthcare policies, [writing in a 2020 *Forbes* article]() that healthcare access should be expanded under a private Medicare Advantage plan funded by way of a "new dedicated 20 percent payroll tax." This position, however, stands in contrast to those commonly [held in Trumpworld]() and in the [ideological MAGA movement]() at large. At the end of the day: do America's health and food systems suck? Yeah, they absolutely do, and broader, comprehensive reforms are needed. But while Oz might hold a real medical license, his public life has largely been an exercise of using his license to award undue credence to quackery and pseudoscience, presented under the collective guise of overall healthy living. He is, indeed, one of the original wellness influencers, entertaining unproven treatments, diets, and cures for the sake of — well, entertainment. And between him and Kennedy, the latter of whom has for years [traded on his family name]() while smoothly blending intuitive health advice with [destructive and disproven nonsense](), our healthcare systems — and the Americans who rely on them — deserve better. **More on Oz:** [*Dr. Oz Accused of Killing Hundreds of Dogs, Puppies, Bunnies*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()