Just two months earlier than she was selected as President Donald Trump’s nominee for surgeon general, Dr. Nicole Saphier advised the administration was hiding that measles was spreading extensively sufficient within the United States for the nation to lose its “elimination” standing till after the midterm elections.
“Seems like they may not want to admit the U.S. Measles elimination status is is (sic) gone until after midterm elections,” Saphier wrote in March.
That publish has since been deleted, together with quite a few others from Saphier’s X account posted in 2025 and 2026 criticizing the administration’s health policies and attacking Trump personally.
Deleted social media posts reviewed by NCS’s KFile present the then-Fox News medical contributor repeatedly broke publicly with Trump and US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on among the administration’s most politically delicate health points, together with vaccines and autism. She additionally raised questions surrounding Trump’s personal health.
Saphier, who additionally works as a radiologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, lately set her X account to personal. Her deleted posts are nonetheless viewable on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine, and NCS was in a position to confirm they have been deleted by viewing her account, which remains to be seen to followers.
A self-described Trump supporter since his first time period, Saphier posted a still-public tweet on Inauguration Day 2025 alongside a photograph montage of her with Trump. “It’s been a wild 8 years and I’m grateful to have been a part of it. Repeal & Replace➡️COVID➡️MAHA, I have been privileged to have a front row seat while history is being made. Welcome back, Mr. President @realDonaldTrump — the next 4 years will be busy and I’m ready for it 🇺🇸”
Saphier, 44, can also be the creator of a number of books – together with “Make America Healthy Again,” printed in 2020, and “Panic Attack: Playing Politics with Science in the Fight Against COVID-19,” printed in 2021 — and hosts the podcast “Wellness Unmasked.” She is also the founding father of DropRx, a complement firm.
She grew to become Trump’s third selection for surgeon general after the White House withdrew the nominations of former Fox News contributor Dr. Janette Nesheiwat and wellness influencer Dr. Casey Means.
Kush Desai, a White House spokesperson, informed NCS, “Dr. Nicole Saphier is an accomplished physician who has practiced radiology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering and has been an outspoken voice on breast cancer prevention, intrusive COVID-19 mandates, the politicization of science, and the federal government’s role in America’s chronic disease epidemic. She will be a powerful asset for President Trump and work tirelessly to deliver on every facet of his MAHA agenda.”
In one deleted June 2025 post throughout Trump’s public feud with Elon Musk, Saphier mocked the president and Musk as “petty, loud, & obnoxious,” writing that the conflict was “like watching two billionaires throw sand in a sandbox.” She added that Bravo host Andy Cohen was doubtless “salivating” watching “grown adults acting like toddlers in a tiara fight.”
Saphier additionally repeatedly criticized Trump’s messaging surrounding Tylenol use throughout being pregnant after the president publicly urged pregnant ladies to keep away from the medicine over unproven claims linking it to autism and told women to “tough it out” moderately than take it for ache or fever.
“As a mom of 3 kids, I don’t love a man telling me to ‘tough it out’ when it comes to pregnancy. Words matter. Facts matter too,” she wrote in a since-deleted publish from September 2025. That identical week, Saphier linked in one other deleted tweet to a podcast episode calling the science linking Tylenol to autism “far from settled.”
A month later, Saphier criticized a Trump publish on Truth Social telling pregnant ladies to not take Tylenol. “This isn’t the first or second time he has said this. Obviously something was said to POTUS behind closed doors and the public deserves transparency on the data presented to substantiate these statements,” she said within the since-deleted publish from October 2025.
Days later, Saphier wrote, “My son has a high fever and I’m angry that I am now questioning giving him Tylenol. Do data exist showing harm to kids that haven’t been shared with the public or is the Tylenol ‘controversy’ purely hyperbolic and conjecture? Needless to say, I’m mad.” That publish has additionally been deleted.
Saphier additionally publicly questioned Trump’s personal health transparency after he disclosed in October 2025 that he had undergone an MRI without specifying what it was for.
“Lots of people questioning POTUS MRI — I have questions too,” Saphier wrote in a single deleted publish from October. But she additionally took purpose at a few of these elevating the questions. “It’s hard to take some of these people seriously as they failed to have questions on Covid natural immunity, vaccines, masking, shutdowns and the fact Biden couldn’t string together a coherent sentence at times.”
A transfer towards extra mainstream nominees
The administration has moved lately to curb among the chaos emanating from Kennedy’s HHS, notably round vaccine coverage, seen as a politically unpopular concern heading into the midterms. Last month, the White House nominated Dr. Erica Schwartz for director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a extra conventional public health pick who happy a key criterion a White House official told NCS was essential: “We just need someone who’s not crazy.”
Means, an ally of Kennedy’s, noticed her nomination stall as senators questioned her expertise and stance on vaccines. Means didn’t end her surgical residency and doesn’t maintain an lively medical license. Saphier’s standing as a working towards radiologist centered on breast most cancers received her reward after Trump nominated her final week, though some – similar to Dr. Jerome Adams, the surgeon general from Trump’s first time period – famous, “In 2026, we really shouldn’t have to highlight that.” Still, he called her a “solid pick.”
On the day Kennedy was confirmed as HHS secretary in a 52-48 vote, Saphier attacked Mitch McConnell — the one Republican to vote towards him — over his personal health.
“Mitch McConnell’s vote against Make America Healthy Again is the ultimate ‘I’m good, thanks’ from a man whose own age and health are waving the white flag of defeat,” she wrote on February 13, 2025, in an undeleted publish. “Time to retire, Sir.”
In a sequence of now-deleted tweets, Saphier additionally repeatedly criticized Kennedy’s overhaul of federal vaccine coverage and messaging, notably surrounding the CDC and its Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, generally known as ACIP. Kennedy gutted the committee in June 2025 and repopulated it with ideological allies who’ve been accused of spreading false or deceptive statements about vaccines.
In a deleted June 2025 tweet citing Sen. Bill Cassidy, Saphier argued that though ACIP wanted reform, new appointees lacked key experience. “The newly appointed members are lacking diversity of thought and areas of expertise, especially in data interpretation,” she wrote.
A federal choose agreed in March, ruling that the substitute of ACIP members didn’t observe federal authorized procedures and that “of the fifteen members currently on ACIP, even under the most generous reading, only six appear to have any meaningful experience in vaccines.” A deliberate March assembly of the group was canceled and hasn’t but been rescheduled.
That ruling additionally led to uncertainty over adjustments the Trump administration made to the childhood vaccine schedule, and that very same month, Saphier wrote: “The CDC vaccine schedule is in limbo, the status of ACIP up in the air and no clear path forward. The system needed reform, but not chaos. The pendulum swung too far in the overhaul. Time for a measured reset, with transparency and data driven guidance.”
Saphier criticized Kennedy’s handpicked vaccine advisory group’s choices in actual time. In one other deleted publish from September 2025, Saphier accused ACIP of appearing as a “gatekeeper” across the mixed measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox vaccine regardless of the US Food and Drug Administration persevering with to contemplate the vaccine secure for younger youngsters. She warned the conflicting steerage was leaving dad and mom “confused” and youngsters “less protected.”
“Get on the same page FDA/CDC. And they wonder why trust keeps dropping,” she wrote.
In one other since-deleted September 2025 publish, Saphier commented on the public dispute between former CDC Director Dr. Susan Monarez and Kennedy after Monarez alleged that she had been instructed to pre-commit to approving ACIP vaccine suggestions, an accusation Kennedy denied.
“The he said/she said is ludicrous and horrible for our public health,” she wrote.
Other deleted posts confirmed Saphier publicly urging the administration to revisit repealing and changing the Affordable Care Act moderately than specializing in what she described as media-driven messaging from Kennedy’s HHS.
“Plenty of headlines and soundbites coming out of HHS lately, but few will truly move the needle on our nation’s health,” Saphier wrote in August 2025. “When President Trump returns from Alaska, it’s time to revisit repeal and replace—because lasting change comes from policy, not press releases.”
NCS’s Em Steck contributed to this report.