Trump's Surgeon General Nominee Faces Hearing Over Supplement Business

Dr. Nicole Saphier, President Donald Trump's nominee for U.S. surgeon general, goes before the Senate on Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026.

The hearing begins at 10:00 AM ET in room 430 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building. It is a full committee hearing of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. The panel will consider three nominations together: Chris Klomp to be deputy secretary of Health and Human Services, Saphier to be medical director in the Regular Corps of the Public Health Service and surgeon general, and Timothy Westlake to be assistant secretary for mental health and substance use.

Saphier was announced on April 30, 2026, as Trump's third nominee for surgeon general. She is a radiologist specializing in breast cancer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New Jersey and a former Fox News contributor The Guardian.

Days before the hearing, she filed a financial disclosure and ethics agreement. The disclosure reports $270,605 in business income from Empower MD, LLC. It identifies Empower MD as the owner of her supplement line, Drop RX, lists the company value as $100,001 to $250,000, and states she will sell Empower MD before assuming the duties of surgeon general.

Drop RX is described as a physician-formulated herbal supplement line founded by Saphier. It has sold at least nine formulations under the Drop RX brand since at least 2024. As of Sept. 14, 2026, its "Soothe" product containing turmeric and ginger root was listed for $24.99.

Earlier reporting from May 2026, when the nomination was new, said Saphier sells an herbal supplement containing an ingredient prohibited by the U.S. military and that her record of selling dietary supplements had raised concern among doctors. The September disclosure provides the more current accounting of the business structure and income.

The disclosure also lists investments across tobacco, pharmaceutical, health care, technology, fossil fuel and food companies, including Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and McDonald's. The ethics agreement is hosted by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics as "Saphier, Nicole finalEA.pdf" and states that the agreement and the Certification of Ethics Agreement Compliance will be posted publicly.

The disclosure became available in the week before Sept. 15. That leaves senators one day to press Saphier on how the sale would work, how the value was set, and the scope of any recusal, meaning stepping aside from related matters.

The broader context here is that the hearing will likely follow three tracks. First is ethics process. Selling a closely held company before taking office is standard practice for presidential appointees with business holdings, but committees typically ask about buyer identity, timeline, price-setting, and whether income continues during the transition. Second is investments. Nominees for health leadership are routinely asked how holdings in regulated industries will be sold or managed. Third is health communication. The surgeon general has no direct power to regulate supplements or food but acts as a national health messenger, so senators will likely test how Saphier separates commercial claims for wellness products from the evidence standards expected of the Public Health Service.

In my view, bundling her nomination with the deputy secretary and substance-use nominations widens the questions. Committee members can use her business record to ask about supplement oversight, nutrition guidance and substance-use policy, while the administration can present the three as a management team. That structure often shortens time for each nominee and puts more weight on written questions for the record, where sale details are usually clarified.