Dr. Nicole Saphier is the third nominee for surgeon general, a position that has remained empty since President Trump took office last year. A Senate committee will hold a confirmation hearing on Wednesday for Dr. Nicole Saphier, a radiologist and former Fox News contributor nominated by President Trump to serve as surgeon general. Mr. Trump nominated Dr. Saphier in April, after his earlier nominee, Dr. Casey Means, a wellness influencer, failed to gain enough support in the Senate to be confirmed. He withdrew his first pick, Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, another former Fox News contributor, in May 2025. Dr. Saphier, the director of breast imaging at a New Jersey branch of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, would both bring medical bona fides and a wellness bent to the role.

Long before Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. uttered the slogan “Make America Healthy Again,” Dr. Saphier wrote a book with that phrase as the title. She also started a supplement company, has hosted a wellness podcast and has said she blends Western medicine with “Eastern techniques” and “natural remedies.” At times, Dr. Saphier has been a critic of Mr. Kennedy.

Last year, after Mr. Kennedy held a news conference calling autism an “epidemic” and promising to find its root causes, Dr. Saphier wrote an opinion essay questioning Mr. Kennedy’s approach and criticizing his department’s hiring of David Geier, a prominent anti-vaccine activist, to be involved in the autism work. “Mr. Kennedy risks undermining the cause he claims to champion,” she wrote. After Mr. Kennedy fired the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last year, Dr. Saphier called the situation “a mess,” and “really embarrassing,” on her podcast. Dr. Saphier is expected to be confirmed by the Senate.