President-elect Donald Trump says he is appointing Dr. Mehmet Oz, who hosted a long-running television talk show, to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
“Dr. “Oz will be a leader in incentivizing disease prevention so that we get the best outcomes in the world for every dollar we spend on health care across our great country,” Trump said in a statement. “It will also reduce waste and fraud in our nation’s most expensive government agency, which accounts for a third of our nation’s health care spending and a quarter of our entire federal budget.”
Oz ran unsuccessfully for the Pennsylvania Senate in 2022 as a Republican and an outspoken supporter of Trump.
Earlier, Trump chose Howard Lutnick, head of brokerage and investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald and cryptocurrency enthusiast, as his nominee for commerce secretary, a position in which he would play a key role in implementing Trump’s plans to raise and enforce tariffs.
Trump announced this on Tuesday on his social media platform Truth Social. In the post, Trump said that Lutnick will “lead our customs and trade agenda, with additional direct responsibility for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.”
Lutnick is co-chair of Trump’s transition teamalong with Linda McMahon, the former wrestling executive who previously ran Trump’s Small Business Administration. Both are tasked with proposing candidates for key positions in the next government.
The nomination would put Lutnick at the helm of a sprawling Cabinet agency concerned with funding new computer chip factories, imposing trade restrictions, releasing economic data and monitoring the weather. In this position, connections with CEOs and the broader business community are also critical.
A supporter of imposing sweeping tariffs, Lutnick told CNBC in September that “tariffs are an amazing tool for the President – we have to protect the American worker.” Trump on the campaign trail proposed a 60% tariff on goods from China – and a tariff of up to 20% on everything else the United States imports.
Mainstream economists are generally skeptical of tariffs, viewing them as a mostly inefficient way for governments to raise money and promote prosperity.
Lutnick had been considered for the post of Treasury secretary, a role that has been at the center of high-profile controversy in Trump world. At the same time, the Treasury position is being closely watched in financial circles, where a disruptive candidate could have immediate negative consequences for the stock market, which Trump is closely watching.
The news also comes after billionaire Elon Musk and others in Trump’s circle called on Trump to give up the current top candidate for Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, in favor of Lutnick. Musk said in his post: “Bessent is a decision as usual while @howardlutnick will actually make change happen.”
Lutnick joined Cantor Fitzgerald in 1983 and rose through the ranks until he was named president and CEO in 1991.
Lutnick is also chairman of a financial technology company BGC GroupInc. and the commercial real estate services company Newmark GroupInc.
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 part of the president-elect’s inner circle, sharing the stage with Trump at events in the final days of his campaign, including a rally at Madison Square Garden.
In the final days of the campaign, he came under fire for an interview with CNN in which he repeated Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s debunked criticism of vaccines.