Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Trump's Campaign Guru, A Tobacco Lobbyist, Will Be His Chief Of Staff
President-elect Donald J. Trump on Thursday named Susie Wiles, the Florida strategist who has run his political operation for nearly four years, as his White House chief of staff for his incoming administration. It is the first job announcement Mr. Trump has made since winning the election on Tuesday. His decision to choose someone in his inner circle is a sharp contrast to his choice after first winning the presidency in 2016. Her appointment will help move along the transition process. In the coming days, Mr. Trump is set to begin reviewing names for the most important jobs in government, including cabinet posts. (Haberman and Swan, 11/7)
Trump's team didn't mention in its announcement that Wiles worked as a lobbyist for the tobacco company Swisher International while running the former president's 2024 bid. Citing disclosure forms filed earlier this year, the investigative outlet Sludge reported Thursday that Wiles "worked to influence Congress on 'FDA regulations.' ""Wiles has not filed a termination report for her work with Swisher, but she has not reported lobbying for the company since the first quarter of the year, when the company paid her firm Mercury Public Affairs $30,000 in fees," Sludge noted. The outlet pointed out that Mercury鈥攚hich lists Wiles as a co-chair on its website鈥攈as "large lobbying contracts with several junk food companies that will be working to oppose" Trump's stated objective to "Make America Healthy Again" by, among other changes, working to remove processed foods from school meals. (Jake Johnson, 11/8)
One of the Trump campaign鈥檚 consistent messages to voters was that a Trump administration would 鈥淢ake America Healthy Again,鈥 with campaign figures like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pledging to get ultra-processed foods removed from school lunches. Mercury has large lobbying contracts with several junk food companies that will be working to oppose that objective. It lobbies for sugar cereal company Kellogg鈥檚, high fructose corn syrup sauce maker Kraft-Heinz, and Nestl茅 SA, the Swiss company whose brands include KitKat, Hot Pockets, and Nestea.聽Some of Mercury鈥檚 other clients, highlighted on its website, include Gilead Sciences, Pfizer, Tesla, Uber, Kaiser Permanente, AT&T, NBC Universal, Gavi: The Vaccine Alliance, and the nation of Qatar.聽(Shaw, 11/7)
President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to involve anti-vaccine activist and conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in his next administration in some capacity, but whoever else he picks to run the major health agencies will have a major impact on the GOP health agenda of the next four years. Top posts require Senate confirmation, meaning Trump will need Senate buy-in too. Positions include Health and Human Services secretary, which requires Senate confirmation; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director, which will require Senate confirmation beginning in January 2025; Food and Drug Administration commissioner and National Institutes of Health director, which also require Senate confirmation. (Cohen, 11/7)
There are doubts that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. could survive a Senate confirmation vote for any Cabinet-level position. A former environmental lawyer, he has in recent decades become a prominent vaccine skeptic and conspiracy theorist, and lawmakers might be reluctant to place him in charge of the country's public health infrastructure. (Garver, 11/7)
Also 鈥
President-elect Donald J. Trump has already sealed a comfortable majority in the Electoral College. But he is also on course to do something he didn鈥檛 do in his first successful campaign for the White House: win the popular vote. The latest count, as of Thursday morning, suggests Mr. Trump will win more votes nationally in the presidential election than his defeated rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, making him the first Republican to prevail in the popular vote in 20 years. (Bigg, 11/7)
Donald Trump鈥檚 victory means the nation鈥檚 first convicted-criminal-turned-president-elect is headed for the White House instead of a prison cell. That鈥檚 because Trump鈥檚 Nov. 26 sentencing hearing in the hush money case almost certainly won鈥檛 happen. (Orden, 11/6)
