Donald Trump’s Surgeon General Pick Casey Means’ Confirmation Hearing Delayed as She Goes Into Labor

Dr. Casey Means’ Surgeon General Hearing Postponed — After She Goes Into Labor

By Bajram Bek­teshi
Octo­ber 30, 2025

In a turn of events that feels straight out of a polit­i­cal dra­ma, Dr. Casey Means’ Sen­ate con­fir­ma­tion hear­ing for U.S. Sur­geon Gen­er­al has been post­poned—for a very human rea­son: she’s report­ed­ly gone into labor with her first child.

The announce­ment came from the Sen­ate Health, Edu­ca­tion, Labor and Pen­sions Com­mit­tee, con­firm­ing that the 37-year-old nominee’s hear­ing would be resched­uled. “Every­one is hap­py for Dr. Means and her fam­i­ly,” said Depart­ment of Health and Human Ser­vices press sec­re­tary Emi­ly Hilliard. “This is one of the few times in life when it’s easy to ask to move a Sen­ate hear­ing.”

From Wellness Influencer to Would-Be Nation’s Doctor

Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump first nom­i­nat­ed Means on May 7, call­ing her cre­den­tials “impec­ca­ble” and prais­ing her align­ment with Health Sec­re­tary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make Amer­i­ca Healthy Again” (MAHA) vision — a move­ment aimed at revers­ing chron­ic dis­ease through diet, lifestyle, and pre­ven­tive med­i­cine.

Trump’s post on Truth Social intro­duced Means with grand praise:

“Her aca­d­e­m­ic achieve­ments, togeth­er with her life’s work, are absolute­ly out­stand­ing. Dr. Casey Means has the poten­tial to be one of the finest Sur­geon Gen­er­als in Unit­ed States his­to­ry.”

But with­in a day, the nom­i­na­tion took a bizarre twist. When pressed by reporters about her lack of an active med­ical license and unfin­ished res­i­den­cy, Trump shrugged off the scruti­ny, say­ing, “Because Bob­by thought she was fan­tas­tic. I don’t know her.”

A Controversial Medical Journey

Means’ career has been any­thing but tra­di­tion­al. After com­plet­ing her under­grad­u­ate and med­ical degrees at Stan­ford Uni­ver­si­ty, she began a sur­gi­cal res­i­den­cy — but lat­er walked away, cit­ing dis­il­lu­sion­ment with the state of mod­ern med­i­cine. She then piv­ot­ed into func­tion­al and holis­tic health, build­ing a devot­ed fol­low­ing as a well­ness influ­encer advo­cat­ing for meta­bol­ic health and mind­ful liv­ing.

Her best-sell­ing book Good Ener­gy and fre­quent pod­cast appear­ances posi­tioned her as a voice for a new kind of med­i­cine — one that blends data, nutri­tion, and self-aware­ness. On her web­site, she describes her mis­sion as “work­ing towards a health­i­er and hap­pi­er plan­et by empow­er­ing peo­ple to under­stand their health and the lim­it­less poten­tial with­in them.”

Still, her detrac­tors point to her inac­tive Ore­gon med­ical license (since Jan­u­ary 2024) and lack of tra­di­tion­al clin­i­cal expe­ri­ence as major red flags for the nation’s top med­ical role.

A Pause — But Not the End

Despite the polit­i­cal firestorm, Dr. Means’ nom­i­na­tion isn’t dead — just delayed. With her baby on the way, the tim­ing has intro­duced a new, human lay­er to what was already a head­line-grab­bing nom­i­na­tion.

For some, it’s a reminder that even in the high­est halls of pow­er, life — and moth­er­hood — can’t always be sched­uled.