Five things to know about Dr. Oz, Trump’s pick to lead Medicaid and Medicare

Oz has emerged as a close Trump ally, spending a significant amount of time at Mar-a-Lago. If confirmed, he will work closely with Health and Human Services Secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in managing the country’s health.

Here are five things to know about Oz:

1. He’s a real doctor

Oz earned his medical degree and master’s of business administration from the University of Pennsylvania in 1986 and practiced cardiology. He is trained as a heart surgeon, with his physician license still active in Pennsylvania despite having stopped doing surgeries in 2018, the Associated Press reported. However, his main claim to fame was his health guru show, The Dr. Oz Show, which ran for 13 seasons starting in 2009.

2. He’s a TV personality

Oz began his television career as a medical expert on The Oprah Winfrey Show for five seasons before earning his own. At its peak, The Dr. Oz Show was one of the most highly rated shows on television. It ran for 1,681 episodes, featuring medical advice, celebrity interviews, lifestyle advice, and more. Oz quickly became a household name.

Trump appeared on the show during his 2016 presidential run. He tapped Oz to serve on the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition during his first administration.

The Dr. Oz Show featured significant controversy, with some medical professionals questioning the scientific basis of much of the medical advice given on the show.

The show concluded on Jan. 14, 2022, due to Oz’s run for Senate in Pennsylvania. Following his defeat in the 2022 election, he attempted to revive his show, to no avail. Producers were unwilling to back a revival, due to his more controversial public persona being marred by politics.

3. He ran for Senate against John Fetterman

Oz announced his candidacy for the seat of the departing Republican Sen. Pat Toomey. He narrowly won in the primary over David McCormick, who went on to unseat Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) two years later. Oz was boosted in the primary by an endorsement from Trump, who later reportedly said that his wife, Melania Trump, was behind the endorsement.

Oz notably became the first Muslim to earn the nomination for the Senate from either party.

The general election was one of the most competitive in the country, running against the then-progressive Democrat John Fetterman. Oz’s campaign was plagued by criticisms of his ties to Turkey, characterization as a carpetbagger due to his recent move to Pennsylvania, and general characterization as an elitist. Oz’s campaign attempted to paint Fetterman as a dangerous radical who was soft on crime.

Fetterman suffered a stroke days before winning the Democratic primary, something that became a significant target. Oz’s campaign was accused of mocking Fetterman’s recovery over its focus, specifically a statement listing “concessions” it would grant Fetterman to debate.

Despite final polls being narrow, Fetterman won the election by 5 points.

4. He’s been targeted for ties to Turkey

Mehmet Oz, named after the Ottoman leader Mehmet the Conquerer, was born in Cleveland to Turkish immigrants. He is a dual citizen of the United States and Turkey, spending most of his summers as a child in Turkey and serving 60 days in the Turkish army in the early 1980s to maintain his citizenship. Records show that he voted in a Turkish election as recently as 2018.

Oz’s ties to Turkey served as an immense source of controversy, particularly during his 2022 Senate campaign. He drew the wrath of the Armenian community, which accused him of denying the Armenian genocide and being tied to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

When pressed by Armenian groups, Oz’s campaign appeared largely dismissive. When asked to explicitly acknowledge the Armenian genocide, his campaign put out a statement saying he “opposes genocide” and “the evils of World War I should be commemorated” — a statement viewed as deliberately vague and obfuscatory.

The Armenian National Committee of America took partial credit for Oz’s defeat in 2022, saying it had saved American democracy “from an Armenian Genocide denier with deep ties to Turkey’s hostile Erdogan regime.”

“This landmark victory was the result of more than a year of strategic planning and relentless community and coalition efforts – ranging from opposition research, voter-education, media outreach, get-out-the-vote, and other targeted electoral initiatives,” the group wrote in a press release. “We are gratified by Dr. Oz’s defeat and look forward to working with ANCA-endorsed candidate, Lt. Governor John Fetterman, for many years to come.”

5. His nomination signals changes coming for CMS

Trump announced Oz’s nomination in a statement Tuesday, giving clues as to how he would approach the position.

“Dr. Oz will be a leader in incentivizing Disease Prevention, so we get the best results in the World for every dollar we spend on Healthcare in our Great Country,” Trump said in his press statement. “He will also cut waste and fraud within our Country’s most expensive Government Agency, which is a third of our Nation’s Healthcare spend and a quarter of our entire National Budget.”

The CMS is an agency under HHS, meaning Oz will work under Kennedy if both men are confirmed by the Senate. The president-elect said Oz “will work closely with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,” another figure with sometimes unorthodox approaches to public health and medicine.

Trump said the duo would “take on the illness industrial complex and all the horrible chronic diseases left in its wake.”

The CMS manages several major public health programs, including Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and the Health Insurance Marketplace. It employs 6,000 people.

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Oz, like Kennedy, has endorsed the idea of spreading out childhood vaccinations rather than receiving multiple doses of different vaccines at one time during infancy.

However, Axios estimated that due to Kennedy’s unclear position on programs such as Medicare, Oz would have significant leeway to implement traditional Republican policies. This could entail some cuts, in line with Trump’s statement on cutting waste.