Pic courtesy: X/ @Simo7809957085
US President Donald Trump has nominated Dr Nicole Saphier as the next US Surgeon General. While announcing his decision on 30 April, Trump praised her as a ‘STAR physician’ with extensive experience in cancer diagnosis and treatment. Here is everything you need to know about Dr Nicole Saphier.
Who is Dr Nicole Saphier?
Trump described Dr Nicole Saphier as a ‘STAR physician’ and an ‘incredible communicator’. “Nicole is a STAR physician who has spent her career guiding women facing breast cancer through their diagnosis and treatment, while tirelessly advocating to increase early cancer detection and prevention, and at the same time working with men and women on all other forms of cancer diagnosis and treatment. She is also an INCREDIBLE COMMUNICATOR, who makes complicated health issues more easily understood by all Americans. Dr Nicole Saphier will do great things for our country, and help ‘MAKE AMERICA HEALTHY AGAIN’. Congratulations, Nicole — our country has long been waiting for you!” the President said in a Truth Social post.Born in January 1982 in Scottsdale, Arizona, Saphier is a board-certified radiologist and a former Fox News Channel contributor. She earned a Doctor of Medicine degree from Ross University School of Medicine. Later, she completed radiology training at Maricopa Integrated Health Systems and pursued a fellowship at the Mayo Clinic. She is currently the director of breast imaging at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center’s Monmouth facility in New Jersey. Saphier is also an associate professor at Weill Cornell Medicine.Dr Nicole Saphier has backed several aspects of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again agenda, including cutting ultra-processed foods from diets, removing food additives, and encouraging exercise. However, she has advocated for vaccination and has also criticised the Trump administration’s approach to health issues as ‘embarrassing’. She also supports the view that patients should be free to make their own medical decisions.Dr Nicole Saphier is also an author and podcaster. She has her own show, ‘Wellness Unmasked with Dr Nicole Saphier’, wherein she comments on the Trump administration’s approach to health. She has also used the phrase ‘Make America Healthy Again’ years before Kennedy popularised it; in fact, it was the title of her 2020 book. Her book is titled ‘Make America Healthy Again: How Bad Behaviour and Big Government Caused a Trillion-Dollar Crisis’. She has also authored ‘Panic Attack: Playing Politics with Science in the Fight Against COVID-19’. In 2024, she published another book — ‘Love, Mom: Inspiring Stories Celebrating Motherhood’.She has also ventured into the wellness product industry, launching her line of herbal supplements called Drop Rx, according to her LinkedIn profile.Saphier is a mother of three boys. She has often expressed that she is thankful she decided to keep her first son after becoming unexpectedly pregnant at the age of 17. She has advocated for more resources for mothers who make the same choice.