Trump appoints TV star ‘Dr. Oz’ to key health post, former WWE CEO Linda McMahon as education secretary

Donald Trump announced Tuesday, November 19, that he was appointing Mehmet Oz, a former surgeon and TV celebrity known as “Dr. Oz,” to lead the United States’ massive public health insurance program. The 64-year-old heart surgeon was championed on daytime television by Oprah Winfrey before he entered politics with an unsuccessful bid for a Senate seat in 2022.

Oz is the latest of Trump’s eye-catching nominations to key positions, including Fox News host Pete Hegseth to be defense secretary, vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary and billionaire Elon Musk to head a government cost-cutting unit. “America is facing a Healthcare Crisis and there may be no Physician more qualified and capable than Dr. Oz to Make America Healthy Again,” the president-elect posted on his Truth Social platform.

The appointment puts a man whose health recommendations – especially on Covid-19 and weight loss – have often been ridiculed by the medical community at the helm of the United States’ Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

As CMS administrator, Oz will be in charge of a federal agency that provides health coverage to more than 160 million Americans – almost half the country’s population. It employs about 6,700 people, had outlays of $1.48 trillion last year and is one the largest purchasers of healthcare services in the world. A son of Turkish immigrants, Oz has never held public office before, but has been a steadfast ally of Trump, who backed him in his unsuccessful Senate run in Pennsylvania.

Former wrestling executive

Trump has also named former wrestling executive Linda McMahon as his pick to head the Department of Education, which he wants to abolish. McMahon led the Small Business Administration during Trump’s initial term from 2017 to 2019 and twice ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for the US Senate in Connecticut.

McMahon 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’s seen as a relative unknown in education circles, though she has expressed support for charter schools and school choice.

Describing McMahon, the former president and CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), as a “fierce advocate for Parents’ Rights,” Trump vowed in a statement: “We will send Education BACK TO THE STATES, and Linda will spearhead that effort.”

Lutnick for Commerce Department

On Tuesday, Trump also appointed Wall Street executive Howard Lutnick to lead the Commerce Department.

Lutnick had been considered for treasury secretary, a role that has been at the center of high-profile jockeying within the Trump world. At the same time, the treasury position is closely watched in financial circles, where a disruptive nominee could have immediate negative consequences on the stock market, which Trump watches closely.

The news also comes after billionaire Elon Musk and others in Trump’s orbit called on Trump to dump previous front-runner for treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, in favor of Lutnick. Musk said in his post that “Bessent is a business-as-usual choice, whereas @howardlutnick will actually enact change.”

Lutnick joined Cantor Fitzgerald in 1983 and rose through the ranks to be appointed president and CEO in 1991. He also chairs financial technology company BGC Group, Inc. and the commercial real estate services firm Newmark Group, Inc.

Lutnick has donated to both Democrats and Republicans in the past and once appeared on Trump’s NBC reality show, The Apprentice. He has become a part of the president-elect’s inner circle, and has shared the stage with Trump at events in the closing days of his campaign, including a rally at Madison Square Garden.

He came under criticism in the campaign’s final days for an interview with CNN in which he repeated Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s debunked criticisms of vaccines.