White House Says Trump Stands Behind Surgeon General Nominee After President’s Remarks

The Senate has not yet voted on Dr. Casey Means, who was nominated in 2025.

Dr. Casey Means in Washington on Feb. 25, 2026. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

President Donald Trump still supports his nominee for surgeon general, Dr. Casey Means, the White House said on March 31.

“There is no one better suited to advance President Trump’s agenda to Make America Healthy Again,” Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, told The Epoch Times via email.

“The President stands by her and the Senate should move to quickly confirm Dr. Means as our next surgeon general without further delay.”

Trump told reporters over the weekend, when asked whether he might withdraw Means’s nomination, “We’re looking at a lot of different things.”

“I don’t know how she’s doing in the nomination process. I’m more focused on Iran,” Trump said. “But something like that would be possible. We probably, certainly have a lot of great candidates.”

Trump nominated Means, the sister of White House adviser Calley Means and a graduate of Stanford University Medical School, in May 2025 as he rescinded the nomination of Dr. Janette Nesheiwat. Casey Means was recommended by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who works closely with her brother, Trump has said.

A confirmation hearing for Casey Means that had been slated to take place in the fall of 2025 was postponed when she went into labor.

Means on Feb. 25, with her baby boy nearby, appeared before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP). She fielded questions on vaccines, autism, and other subjects.

Means told senators that her top priorities as America’s doctor would include improving Americans’ health by tackling causes of chronic diseases such as speaking out against ultra-processed foods and working to reduce loneliness and increase physical activity.

She also said she supports vaccines as well as informed consent, or talking to patients about the risks and benefits of shots and medications, and that she backs researching what causes autism, a disorder with rising prevalence in the country.

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), the chairman of the Senate HELP Committee, has not scheduled a vote to advance Means’s nomination.

A spokesman for Cassidy did not return a request for comment by time of publication on Tuesday.

The panel narrowly advanced the nomination of Kennedy in 2025. Cassidy also voted for Kennedy as the full Senate approved him as health secretary. Cassidy said Kennedy had agreed to certain conditions, including not altering existing language on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccines and autism.

The CDC later updated that page. Its earlier position was “vaccines do not cause autism.” The site now says that that position “is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism.”

Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), members of the committee who would need to vote to advance the Means nomination if all Democrats vote against her, have told reporters that they are concerned with some of her views. The offices of those senators did not return requests for comment by publication time.