Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he was appointing Mehmet Oz, a former TV star surgeon, to lead the enormous American public health insurance program.
“The United States is plunged into a public health crisis and there is no doctor more qualified than Dr. Oz to restore America to health,” the president-elect said in a statement.
“It will also reduce waste and fraud at our nation’s most expensive government agency,” Trump promised. This 64-year-old surgeon is known for being a small screen star, who failed to enter politics.
Dubbed in the 2000s by the popess of American television Oprah Winfrey, who invited him as an expert on her set, he had his own show for more than ten years, “Dr. Oz Show,” which made him a celebrity. This son of Turkish immigrants even has his star on the famous “Walk of Fame” in Hollywood.
But his health recommendations, sometimes punctuated with qualifiers like “magic” or “miracle”, have earned him criticism from colleagues, and he has also been accused of having promoted ineffective or potentially dangerous treatments or food supplements, particularly on the Covid.
Candidate dubbed by Donald Trump in a highly scrutinized election in Pennsylvania, he failed to be elected to the US Senate in 2022. His appointment like those of other television stars to key positions — the person appointed by Donald Trump to lead the Pentagon is a former Fox News anchor — has been criticized by the Democratic camp. “We are becoming the first reality TV show in the world with nuclear weapons,” mocked elected official Jim Himes.
