Two months ago, President Donald Trump picked Dr. Nicole Saphier as his new surgeon general. What surprised many people was that Saphier, who has called herself a Trump supporter since his first term, had spent months bashing the administration and Trump himself online. Now, after her nomination, Saphier seems to have deleted her social media posts.
CNN looked at Saphier’s deleted tweets, which showed a pattern that did not match her new role as a top health official in the Trump administration. The tweets, posted in 2025 and 2026, showed Saphier going against Trump and US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on major health topics, including vaccines and autism.
One deleted tweet from June 2025 mocked Trump and Elon Musk as “petty, loud, & obnoxious,” comparing their public fight to a sandbox argument. Saphier also pushed back on Trump’s messaging about Tylenol use during pregnancy, writing that it was “hard to take some of these people seriously” and that facts and data mattered.
Her past posts raise real questions about the job ahead
Saphier, who works as a radiologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, also questioned Trump’s openness about his own health after he shared that he had an MRI but did not say what it was for.
She wrote that she also had questions about the MRI, but she also went after some of the people asking questions, calling them “crazy.” This isn’t the only time Trump has faced pushback, as Gavin Newsom recently shut him down over a bizarre naming idea.
The deleted tweets also showed Saphier criticizing Kennedy’s changes to federal vaccine policy and messaging, especially around the CDC and its Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, known as ACIP. Saphier said the new appointees did not have the right expertise and that the system needed fixing, but not chaos.
In a deleted post from September 2025, Saphier said ACIP was acting as a “gatekeeper” around the combined measles, mumps, rubella, and chickenpox vaccine, even though the US Food and Drug Administration still views the vaccine as safe for young children. She warned that mixed guidance was leaving parents “confused” and children “less protected.”
Her social media past has raised questions about whether she is the right fit for surgeon general. Dr. Jerome Adams, who was surgeon general during Trump’s first term, called her a “solid pick.”
Others have voiced worries about her lack of experience and her past criticism of the administration. The shifting positions echo how Trump flipped on the Strait of Hormuz after first telling allies it wasn’t his issue.
Saphier’s nomination also points to a shift toward more mainstream picks within the administration. The White House has recently tried to cut down on some of the chaos coming from Kennedy’s HHS, especially around vaccine policy. Last month, the White House nominated Dr. Erica Schwartz to lead the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a more traditional public health choice.
Published: May 6, 2026 11:04 am