Seen on TV. This is one of the dominant criteria in putting together the Trump 2 cabinet, whose key posts have been designated since the November 5 presidential election. The president-elect has not changed. More than statements of intent, strategic arguments or experience in the relevant field, Donald Trump wants personal ambassadors in front of the cameras. People who are used to being on stage, who will defend his administration without qualms. It's hard not to see confirmation of this in the two picks announced on Tuesday, November 19: Mehmet Oz in charge of Medicare and Medicaid, and Linda McMahon as head of the Department of Education.
Oz is a heart surgeon by training and a former TV star who hosted a show bearing his name for almost 10 years. He has no management skills, especially for such a sprawling administration. In a statement, Trump said that Oz will reduce "waste and fraud within our country's most expensive government agency."
He will report to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has been nominated to head the Department of Health and Human Services. Of Turkish origin, Oz is known for regularly promoting improbable, supposedly miraculous drugs or remedies on television. Scientists have published a number of articles denouncing his false claims, such as that chicory, red onion and sea bass could lower the risk of ovarian cancer by 75%.
In March 2020, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, Oz went on Fox News to praise the work of a "French doctor" – meaning Didier Raoult – on hydroxychloroquine, a supposedly decisive remedy against Covid-19. Oz said his "jaw dropped" when he saw the results of the first studies conducted in Marseille, and that he had tried to contact their sponsor.
In 2022, "Dr. Oz" entered politics, running for a Senate seat in Pennsylvania. His opponent, Democrat John Fetterman, defeated him by reducing him to a New Jersey celebrity, out of touch with working people. Today, the same Fetterman, who has become one of the most unpredictable politicians in Congress, says he's ready to support Oz's nomination, provided he doesn't challenge Medicare and Medicaid.
The second nomination announced on Tuesday was that of Linda McMahon. Wife of Vince McMahon, with whom she developed the all-powerful World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), she served in Trump's first cabinet, in charge of small businesses. The billionaire twice ran unsuccessfully for a Senate seat in Connecticut. Co-chair of Trump's transition committee, she was also a donor to his campaign. Education? Zero experience. Her mission will be to implement, at least in part, one of Trump's campaign promises: the end of the Department of Education. "We will send education back to the states," the president-elect said in a statement on Tuesday. If closing the department proves complex, McMahon could organize the redirection of certain budget lines to the states, which would be free to manage them according to their priorities.
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