Trump pulls Casey Means' stalled surgeon general nomination and says he'll put forth Nicole Saphier

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Thursday he’s nominating former Fox News Channel contributor and radiologist Dr. Nicole Saphier for surgeon general after Dr. Casey Means’ path forward stalled in the Senate over questions about her experience and her stance on vaccines.

In a social media post, Trump said he would nominate Saphier, whom he called “a STAR physician who has spent her career guiding women facing breast cancer through their diagnosis and treatment.”

Saphier is a radiologist and director of breast imaging at Memorial Sloan Kettering Monmouth, according to her profile on the New York-based institution’s website. She has a doctor of medicine degree from Ross University School of Medicine in Barbados along with fellowships at the Mayo Clinic, the profile said.

The withdrawal came after tense exchanges between Means and lawmakers of both parties threw into question whether she could secure enough votes to advance out of the Senate health committee.

Her nomination had languished since her confirmation hearing in late February, even as activists from the Make America Healthy Again movement orchestrated a push to support her bid by surging phone calls to Republican senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine. They had both indicated reservations with the pick.

In nominating Means last May, Trump sought to hire a close ally of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the nation’s doctor. The 38-year-old Means, a Stanford-education physician who became disillusioned with the health care system and pivoted to a career as an author and entrepreneur, promotes ideas popular with the MAHA movement, including that Americans are overmedicalized and that diet and lifestyle changes should be at the center of efforts to end widespread chronic disease.

But Means, who did not finish her surgical residency program and doesn’t currently have an active medical license, also had faced scrutiny for her lack of experience and potential conflicts. On top of those concerns, senators grilled her in February about Kennedy’s wide-ranging pullback of vaccine recommendations — leading to some contentious moments as Means toed the line between support for vaccines and calling them a decision best made by patients and their doctors.

In her confirmation hearing, Means was repeatedly asked about the birth dose of the hepatitis B vaccine, which the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stopped recommending for all children late last year in a move criticized by scientific and medical groups nationwide. Means has raised doubts about the birth dose, posting on social media in 2024 that giving the vaccine to a newborn whose parents don’t have hepatitis B was “absolute insanity.”

In another post earlier Thursday, Trump called Means “a strong MAHA Warrior” and also criticized the “intransigence and political games” from GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who is facing a tough reelection this year and who interrogated Means about vaccines during the hearing.

Means' brother, Calley Means, a health adviser to the Trump administration, blamed Cassidy in a social media post, claiming his “constant delay tactics” sank the nomination. Cassidy didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Means is the second U.S. surgeon general pick whose nomination has been withdrawn in Trump’s second term. Trump withdrew his first nominee, Fox News medical contributor Janette Nesheiwat, after questions were raised about her academic credentials.

In at least one case, Saphier has diverted from Trump’s medical messaging. Last year, as Trump advised pregnant women, “Don’t take Tylenol” — promoting unproven and in some cases discredited ties between the medication, vaccines and autism — Saphier said that while pregnant women generally are advised to take acetaminophen only under medical supervision, when necessary and at the lowest effective dose, equally important was that untreated fever or severe pain can also pose serious risks to mothers and babies. She noted that part was missing from Trump's message.

“For decades, women have endured a paternalistic tone in medicine. We’ve moved past dismissing symptoms as ‘hysteria,’” Saphier wrote in an email to The Associated Press at the time. “The President’s recent comments on Tylenol in pregnancy are a prime example. Advising moderation was sound; delivering it in a patronizing, simplistic way was not.”

Means and Saphier did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services referred inquiries to the White House.

FILE - Dr. Casey Means takes her seat at the start of a Senate Health, Education Labor and Pension Committee confirmation hearing for U.S. Surgeon General on Capitol Hill, Feb. 25, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Tom Brenner, File)

FILE - Dr. Casey Means testifies during a Senate Health, Education Labor and Pension Committee confirmation hearing for U.S. Surgeon General on Capitol Hill, Feb. 25, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Tom Brenner, File)

President Donald Trump speaks to reporters as he meets with NASA's Artemis II astronauts Victor Glover, Christina Koch, Reid Wiseman and Jeremy Hansen in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, April 29, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico is vowing an independent investigation of 10 current and former officials indicted in the U.S. on charges of drug trafficking and illegal possession of weapons in connection with the Sinaloa Cartel.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Thursday she wouldn’t let foreign governments meddle in her country’s affairs to serve their own political purposes.

The indictment in New York on Wednesday charged a number of sitting officials in Sinaloa, including members of Sheinbaum's progressive Morena party, with drug trafficking and illegal possession of weapons. It fueled a political firestorm at a time when Sheinbaum has sought to offset U.S. pressures to crack down on cartels while appeasing her own base with a message of Mexican sovereignty.

Mexico's government said that it had seen an extradition request from the U.S. for 10 citizens and added that the request didn't provide enough evidence to warrant an arrest.

The highest profile official implicated was Sinaloa Gov. Rubén Rocha Moya, a top Morena official and close ally of Sheinbaum's mentor and predecessor, former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

Sheinbaum on Thursday said that Mexican prosecutors would investigate the cases and gather their own information to “determine whether there is evidence establishing that the allegations made by U.S. authorities have a legal basis for requesting arrest warrants.”

The president previously said that she had seen no evidence to back up the U.S. allegations. She added that she was ready to put her foot down if Mexican investigations find “no clear evidence” that those charged committed a crime.

“If it is evident that the Justice Department’s charges are politically motivated, let there be absolutely no doubt: under no circumstances will we allow a foreign government to interfere in decisions that are the exclusive prerogative of the Mexican people,” Sheinbaum said.

The accusations against the governor of Sinaloa ramp up already mounting pressures on the Trump administration on Mexico, as many analysts note they haven't seen the U.S. target a high-ranking official still in office.

Carlos Pérez Ricart, a professor the Mexican Center for Research and Economic Education, the move marks “a foreign government provoking a political earthquake in Mexico” to back its own political rhetoric around drug-trafficking and intervention in Latin America.

“U.S. justice is currently serving an interventionist foreign policy with specific objectives in Mexico,” he added.

Rocha, the governor, categorically rejected the accusations on Wednesday, writing on a social media post that they “lack any basis in truth.”

The indictment also charged the mayor of Sinaloa’s capital and a senator, both from Sheinbaum’s Morena party, and other officials that held positions not affiliated with any political party. Rocha and other officials called it an attack on their left-leaning political movement.

According to the indictment, the defendants shielded Sinaloa Cartel leaders from investigation, arrest, and prosecution, fed the cartel with sensitive law enforcement and military information, directed members of state and local law enforcement agencies to protect drug loads and let the cartel commit brutal drug-related violence without consequence. In return, it said, the defendants received millions of dollars in drug money.

The cartel is one of eight Latin American criminal groups that the U.S. has designated as a terrorist organization.

The indictment of Rocha, who was born in the same town as “El Chapo,” was particularly notable because the governor was embroiled in a scandal in 2024 involving the Sinaloa Cartel. His name was published in a letter written by a then-Sinaloa Cartel capo who was kidnapped by leaders of a rival faction of the cartel and handed off to law enforcement in the U.S. In the letter, the capo said that when he was kidnapped he believed he was on his way to meet with Rocha.

Mexico's Deputy Attorney General Ulises Lara said in a video released Wednesday night that Mexico's government would only approve of the extradition if there is sufficient evidence, which they so far haven't been provided by Washington.

He noted that sitting officials would need to be impeached before any major actions by Mexican authorities to lift their legal immunity and criticized the U.S. release of details about the case, calling them “detrimental to the confidential nature of criminal proceedings.”

Associated Press journalist Fabiola Sánchez contributed to this report from Mexico City.

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

FILE - Sinaloa state Gov. Ruben Rocha waves as he takes part in an annual earthquake drill in Culiacan, Mexico, Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo, File)

President Claudia Sheinbaum gives her daily morning press conference at the National Palace in Mexico City, Thursday, April 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum arrives at the National Palace to give her daily morning press conference in Mexico City, Thursday, April 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)