Trump Picks Heidi Overton for FDA Commissioner as Ossoff-White House Feud Escalates

President Trump is expected to nominate Dr. Heidi Overton, currently deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, to lead the Food and Drug Administration, according to Bloomberg News, which first reported the pick, along with corroborating reporting from Reuters and CNN.

She would take over an agency that has lost more than 3,000 staff and several division heads over the past year, according to CNN and Reuters. The FDA has been run on an acting basis by Kyle Diamantas since Dr. Marty Makary resigned in May after 13 months, following clashes with the White House over vaccine, vaping, and drug-review policy, according to Reuters.

Overton is a physician by training, board-certified in public health and general preventive medicine, with a medical degree from the University of New Mexico and surgical and clinical-investigation training at Johns Hopkins, according to Food Safety News and Reuters reporting carried by The Hindu. She previously served in the first Trump administration as a White House Fellow and later ran the health policy center at the America First Policy Institute, a conservative think tank.

Overton has no experience with food policy or the food industry, according to Food Safety News. Her background is in health policy and surgery, not food safety.

CNN reported that Overton beat out finalists including oncologist Dr. Jeff Vacirca and Pentagon health official Stephen Ferrara, aided by a close relationship with White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and support from Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, who worked with Overton both in Trump's first term and at America First Policy Institute.

Overton stood behind Trump last week when he signed an executive order overhauling the childhood vaccine schedule, including splitting the MMR vaccine into three separate shots, according to Reuters. That order already drew criticism from GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy and public health groups, and CNN reports it's likely to resurface hard during her Senate confirmation. Cassidy previously delayed the confirmation of CDC Director Dr. Erica Schwartz over his long-running concerns about the administration's vaccine policies, according to CNN, so a smooth ride for Overton isn't guaranteed.

Picking a health-policy insider with strong administration loyalty, rather than someone with a food-safety or agency-management background, carries tradeoffs for an FDA trying to rebuild after mass departures. Supporters would say stabilizing an agency wracked by turnover requires someone Trump and Wiles trust, not necessarily a food-safety specialist, since career staff can handle technical food matters. Critics, including some in the "Make America Healthy Again" camp cited by CNN, remain skeptical of Overton for the opposite reason: they see her as having helped steer the White House away from RFK Jr.'s more aggressive health agenda earlier this year.

Separately, Trump's team is trading blows with Sen. Jon Ossoff

In an unrelated fight this week, Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff kept jabbing at Trump over comments Ossoff made at a Sunday rally, where he said Trump would rather "build his ballroom" and "travel with Natalie" than do his job, a reference to Trump aide Natalie Harp, according to The Daily Beast.

White House communications director Steven Cheung responded on X, writing "Jon Jackoff has to be the biggest cuck loser in politics," and White House spokesman Davis Ingle called him a "cringeworthy, feminine theatre kid cosplaying as Barack Obama," per The Daily Beast. Trump himself called Ossoff "Pee-wee Herman" when asked about the remarks.

Ossoff didn't let up. At a Tuesday rally with Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, Ossoff called Trump a "draft-dodging, crook president" who "plunged our nation recklessly into a war he knows not how to end or to win," according to The Daily Beast. Trump did receive four education deferments and a fifth deferment following a diagnosis of bone spurs during Vietnam, a matter of public record, though "crook" is Ossoff's characterization, not an established legal finding.

Ossoff was also referencing Trump's public comments suggesting Kelly, a retired Navy captain, should be jailed over a video where Kelly urged servicemembers to refuse illegal orders, according to The Daily Beast.

The White House did not respond to The Daily Beast's request for comment on Ossoff's latest remarks.

Neither the Overton nomination nor the Ossoff spat has an obvious next step yet. Overton's nomination will need Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearings before a floor vote, a process that could take months given the scrutiny already building over vaccine policy. Ossoff and the White House show no sign of letting the feud drop, and the exchange looks likely to keep escalating.