Following the resignation of Marty Makary last spring, Trump has nominated Dr. Heidi Overton, the Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, to be the next commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA has a staff of around 18,000 people and is responsible for regulating food, drugs and medical devices, as well as tobacco, cosmetics, supplements and other products.
Overton received a medical degree from the University of New Mexico and a Ph.D. in clinical investigation at Johns Hopkins. She also trained as a general surgery resident at Hopkins, working with pancreatic surgeon and former FDA commissioner Makary before he led the FDA.
Overton is most notable for being pro-MAHA, vehemently anti-abortion, and a supporter of Trump’s wild ideas about vaccines. During his first term, she served as a White House fellow focused on health policy. After Trump’s defeat in 2020, she served four years as the director of the Center for a Healthy America at a Trump-aligned conservative think tank, America First Policy Institute (a group The Atlantic describes as “a Cabinet-in-waiting for a second Trump term”.) The Atlantic calls Overton “one of the most powerful public-health officials in Trump’s orbit.”
The Wall Street Journal reported that she was offered the job of director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after HHS Administrator Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK Jr.) fired Susan Monarez in August 2025, but she turned it down.
Overton enjoys enormous support from Kennedy, whose MAHA initiatives she has long supported. After Trump announced her as his pick, Kennedy 𝕏praised her on social media. “Heidi brings exceptional judgment, professionalism, discipline, and an unwavering commitment to the American people,” he wrote. “I have seen her challenge assumptions, demand excellence, and turn bold ideas into meaningful results.”
While she may be beloved by Trump and Kennedy, her path to leading the FDA is not certain...
In Trump’s announcement of her as his choice on social media, he offered a glimpse of why he chose Overton: he believes she helps him with Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) voters. “Dr. Heidi will work with Secretary Kennedy and Dr. Oz to RAPIDLY deliver on my priorities of FASTER Cures, INCREASED American Innovation, MAJOR Clinical Trial Reforms, LOWER Drug Prices, and even more MAHA WINS!,” he wrote.
However, that plan may not go as Trump hopes it will. STAT reports that many influential MAHA leaders are very unhappy with her being chosen:
[M]any MAHA activists are convinced Overton has been to blame for stalled policy initiatives and slow progress in the first half of the Trump administration.
Kelly Ryerson, a MAHA advocate who previously met with administration officials about its health agenda,[said in a post on X]that Overton’s nomination was “witnessing the steep fall into depths of the swamp.” Toby Rogers, a fellow at the MAHA-aligned Brownstone Institute,[wrote on social media]that Overton had “purged all of the MAHA reformers from FDA and CDC.”
“MAHA has turned into a nightmare,” Rogers wrote.
AP has more:
Kelly Ryerson, an activist critical of pesticides who is known to her supporters as “Glyphosate Girl,” told The Associated Press that Overton parroted pesticide manufacturer Bayer’s talking points in a MAHA roundtable at the White House in April.
“I was stunned by the blatant, undisguised corruption,” Ryerson said.
Other MAHA leaders see Overton as an impediment to getting their way. In an article in The Atlantic titled, “The White House’s MAHA Gatekeeper”, Michael Scherer and Tom Bartlett write that she threw sand in the gears when Joe Rogan was encouraging Trump to sign an executive order on psychedelic therapies as well as with a number of other of Trump’s efforts:
Members of the “Make America Healthy Again” movement were furious, convinced that Overton, not for the first time, had undermined Trump’s own desires. The friction, which has not been previously reported, became so intense that Rogan and W. Bryan Hubbard, the CEO of Americans for Ibogaine, a nonprofit that champions the drug’s therapeutic benefits, threatened to pull out of the signing ceremony if they did not have a say in Overton’s final edits, according to three people familiar with the events. [...]
Overton’s detractors describe her as one of the biggest obstacles to MAHA actually realizing its priorities…They accuse her of slow-walking marijuana rescheduling, trying to limit MAHA changes to federal nutrition guidelines, and delaying or weakening several other initiatives. “As an unelected bureaucrat, Heidi Overton sought to use her pen to override the intended exercise of presidential power,” one person outside of government who was familiar with the psychedelic-executive-order process told us.
Turning Point USA’s Alex Clark, a leading online voice in the MAHA movement, 𝕏tweeted a call to MAHA adherents to “rise up” against Overton’s nomination:
She was 𝕏called a “DEI hire” by Trump whisperer Laura Loomer:
Earlier this month, Heidi Overton was present in the Oval Office during Trump’s childhood vaccine Executive Order signing ceremony [▶VIDEO]. She spoke at the event, urging states to follow the Trump guidelines, which include vaccinating for fewer diseases and breaking up the MMR shot into three separate shots. During the event, she ▶urged states to put Trump’s vaccine ideas into their state law “so that when parents go to enroll their kids in school, they do not have to meet some of the requirements for the vaccines that are no longer recommended.”
Historically, Overton (in her own words) “continually opposed the draconian, Fauci-era COVID mandates, including school closures, mask mandates, and vaccine mandates.”
STAT reports that, while RFK Jr. has been the leader of the MAHA movement, Overton has been instrumental behind the scenes in crafting MAHA-based policy:
The Trump administration did not overhaul the childhood vaccine schedule or flip the food pyramid until Heidi Overton, deputy director of domestic policy for the White House, had her say.
While health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been the public face of the Make America Healthy Again movement, Overton has been the top health policymaker behind the scenes, according to two people, including a senior administration official, familiar with her White House influence.
Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy, Chair of the powerful Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, called Overton’s participation in Trump’s “nonsensical vaccine executive order” “almost disqualifying” in 𝕏a social media post where he expressed his “strong concerns” about her nomination.
Her lack of management experience worries Big Pharma, as well:
The choice of Overton, an ally of Makary, may deepen concerns among drugmakers and some FDA staff seeking stability after months of upheaval. Chris Meekins, a former Trump health official who is now an analyst at Raymond James, said industry groups are likely to view Overton’s lack of management experience negatively and warned her appointment could accelerate staff departures and reverse progress made since Makary’s exit.
Meekins told * Reuters*, “Industry will view this pick as extremely troublesome and FDA career staff will continue to flee the agency in my view. Any progress made since Makary’s departure is likely to be quickly reversed if she is confirmed.”
Reproductive rights advocates are validly concerned with Overton being nominated to run FDA. Via * Ms. Magazine*:
Trump has officially nominated Dr. Heidi Overton as the FDA commissioner. Overton previously called the abortion pill “telebortion,” and called on Congress to strictly regulate it. With the FDA currently reevaluating its approval of mifepristone and its regulations permitting providers to mail the medication, Overton’s nomination represents yet another challenge to mifepristone’s widespread usage—which accounts for over two-thirds of all abortions, including in states with bans.
Mini Timmaraju, president and CEO of national repro rights group Reproductive Freedom for All, called Overton, “one of the most extreme, one of the most unhinged folks we’ve seen.”
Here are some things she’s said about abortion:
On the overturning of
Roe: “Today the Supreme Court delivered a huge victory for life and recognized the tremendous advances in medicine over the past 50 years…While doctors can now save the lives of babies with minimally invasive surgeries to treat conditions as early as 16 weeks gestation, six states plus Washington, D.C., allow abortion all the way up until the time of birth. The Supreme Court’s decision today will allow Americans to reevaluate the value of the potential of every baby in the womb and choose life through a democratic process. [SOURCE]“Today, in six states plus the District of Columbia, there are absolutely no state-level restrictions on when an abortion can take place—meaning that fully formed babies can be killed in the womb until the point of birth.” [
SOURCE]“Though Americans clearly align with the beliefs of the pro-life movement, Leftists relentlessly attack these views as extreme. In reality, the Left’s positions are furthest removed from sentiments of the American people and are drastically more extreme than most of the world.” [
SOURCE]“The pro-choice movement, fueled by radical liberals, only offers women facing difficult circumstances one solution: termination of the life of her unborn child.” [
SOURCE]“Abortion pills, also called chemical abortions... are far more dangerous to women, enabling rapid access to abortion.” [
SOURCE]
With the right to an abortion enjoying the support of over 60% of Americans, she can’t afford to lose any Republican votes on her nomination.
When he tweeted about his “strong concerns” with Overton, Bill Cassidy cited her “lack of managerial experience” to run an enormous and complex organization like the FDA. “Her lack of managerial experience does not prepare her well for leading a large organization that is already dealing with staffing and morale issues,” he wrote, seemingly poised to vote against her. POLITICO writes that his lack of support may doom her chances:
Without the support of Cassidy, who’s frequently pushed back on vaccine policies championed by Trump and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., it would be nearly impossible for her to become commissioner. Cassidy could deny her the committee vote she needs, or simply join Democrats in voting her down there. The Senate would then never get the chance to consider her.
Her lack of management experience worries Big Pharma, as well:
The choice of Overton, an ally of Makary, may deepen concerns among drugmakers and some FDA staff seeking stability after months of upheaval. Chris Meekins, a former Trump health official who is now an analyst at Raymond James, said industry groups are likely to view Overton’s lack of management experience negatively and warned her appointment could accelerate staff departures and reverse progress made since Makary’s exit.
Meekins told * Reuters*, “Industry will view this pick as extremely troublesome and FDA career staff will continue to flee the agency in my view. Any progress made since Makary’s departure is likely to be quickly reversed if she is confirmed.”
Dr. Heidi Overton has insinuated herself into nearly every aspect of the Trump administration’s public health policymaking. She has ingratiated herself with both Trump and RFK Jr. and her fingerprints are on nearly every health-related thing the administration has done.
However, with the right to abortion enjoying 60% support among voters and vaccines being even more popular, she represents very unpopular views. In addition to that, Trump’s hopes that she will shore up the MAHA vote seem misplaced: she has drawn the ire of a wide array of MAHA leaders and influencers.
Because of this, she is not likely to get any votes from Democrats, which means she can’t lose more than three Republican votes if her nomination advances to the full Senate. HELP Committee Bill Cassidy may be one vote she loses and, as a lame duck, he no longer has to worry about earning the favor of Trump and his supporters. Susan Collins of Maine is up for reelection this fall and she is at the very least a tepid supporter of reproductive rights, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska is also a pro-Choice Republican. Overton’s vehement anti-abortion stances and actions may lose their votes, as well.
Whether she can keep the rest of the Senate Republicans on her side remains to be seen.
