Trump's surgeon general pick to face senators' questions at confirmation hearing

President Donald Trump’s pick for surgeon general, Dr. Casey Means, is likely to face tough questions Thursday on Capitol Hill as senators decide whether to support her confirmation.

If she assumes the role, Means would become the county’s leading public health spokesperson, with the authority to issue health warnings and advisories.

Her nomination has stirred controversy: Means, a close ally of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has voiced skepticism of traditional medicine and promoted wellness products. She also doesn’t hold an active medical license.

Means will testify virtually starting at 11 a.m. ET before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.

Trump nominated her in May after he withdrew his previous choice, Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, a former Fox News medical contributor.

Trump said he selected Means on Kennedy’s recommendation. She was a campaign adviser during Kennedy’s presidential bid and an architect of his “Make America Healthy Again” agenda.

In her 2024 book, “Good Energy,” Means describes having quit her medical residency program after she became disillusioned with the medical system’s focus on managing disease rather than curing patients. She got her M.D. at Stanford University and completed nearly all of her five-year surgical residency at Oregon Health and Science University before she dropped out.

“I walked out of the hospital and embarked on a journey to understand the real reasons why people get sick,” she wrote in her book.

Means’ medical license lapsed in January 2024 — a subject that is expected to come up at the hearing.

Former Surgeon General Jerome Adams, who served during Trump’s first administration, has argued that completing a residency and holding a valid medical license are implicit legal requirements for the role, since surgeons general oversee the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps — a federal public health branch that requires its own officers to have medical licenses.