President-elect Donald Trump says he is nominating Dr. Mehmet Oz, a longtime television talk show host, to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
“Dr. Oz will be a leader in promoting Disease Prevention, so we get the best results in the world for every dollar we spend on Health Care in our Great Country,” Trump said in a statement. “He will also reduce waste and fraud in our nation’s most expensive Government Agency, our Nation’s Health Care a third of the expenditure and a quarter of our entire National Budget”.
Oz ran unsuccessfully for Senate in Pennsylvania in 2022 as a Republican and a Trump supporter.
Earlier, Trump Howard Lutnick, the head of brokerage and investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald and a cryptocurrency enthusiast, was named commerce secretary, a role that would play a key role in advancing Trump’s tariff hike and enforcement plans.
Trump made the announcement on his social media platform Truth Social on Tuesday. In the release, Trump said Lutnick “will lead our Tariff and Trade agenda, with additional direct responsibility for the Office of the US Trade Representative.”
He is the co-president of Lutnick Trump’s transition teamAlong with Linda McMahon, the former embattled CEO who ran Trump’s Small Business Administration. Both are responsible for putting forward candidates for key roles in the next administration.
The appointment would put Lutnick in charge of a wide-ranging Cabinet agency that finances new computer chip factories, imposes trade restrictions, releases economic data and monitors the weather. It’s also a position where connections with CEOs and the wider business community are key.
An advocate of sweeping tariffs, Lutnick told CNBC in September that “tariffs are an amazing tool for the president to use — we have to protect the American worker.” On the Trump campaign trail He proposed a 60% tariff on goods from China — and a tariff of up to 20% on everything else the United States imports.
Major economies are generally skeptical of tariffs, seeing them as an inefficient way for governments to raise money and promote prosperity.
Lutnick was tapped as Treasury secretary, a role that has been at the center of high-profile gambling in Trump’s world. At the same time, the position of the treasury is closely watched in financial circles, where a disruptive candidate could have immediate negative effects on the stock market, which Trump is watching closely.
The news also comes after billionaire Elon Musk and others in Trump’s orbit called on Trump to drop former Treasury Secretary nominee Scott Bessent in favor of Lutnick. In his post, Musk said, “This is a regular choice for Bessent, and @howardlutnick will really make a difference.”
Lutnick joined Cantor Fitzgerald in 1983 and was promoted to president and CEO in 1991.
Lutnick also runs a financial technology company BGC teamInc. and commercial real estate services company The Newmark GroupInc.
Lutnick has donated to Democrats and Republicans in the past, and once appeared on Trump’s NBC reality show, “The Apprentice.” He has joined the president-elect’s inner circle, sharing the stage with Trump at his campaign finale, including a rally at Madison Square Garden.
He came under fire in the final days of the campaign for an interview with CNN in which he repeated Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s criticisms of vaccines.
