Mehmet Oz selection shows Trump believes in the power of TV and celebrity

Mehmet Oz is the latest reality TV star to be nominated for Donald’s Trump’s cabinet. Picture: AFP

Donald Trump is the first reality TV star to become president. And it shows.

The president-elect is now drawing on the power of TV and celebrity to inform some of his key appointments, including Mehmet Oz as his pick to lead the Centres for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Oz is a household name to millions of Americans who know him from his daytime television program, The Dr Oz Show, which ran from 2009 to 2022.

The cardiothoracic surgeon who previously promoted hydroxychloroquine as a Covid-19 treatment would be charged with working alongside vaccine sceptic Robert Kennedy Jr to run the key agency providing health coverage to more than 160 million Americans.

Posting the news on his Truth Social platform, Trump said that no physician was more “qualified and capable than Dr Oz to Make America Healthy Again”.

He also boasted that Oz had won nine Daytime Emmy Awards and was the author of numerous New York Times bestsellers.

Oz, a former Senate candidate who fell short of winning a seat in 2022, is not the only TV personality hand-picked by Trump for a top job.

Fox News host Pete Hegseth has been nominated as defence secretary – a shock pick that no one saw coming. Yet he will be responsible for 1.3 million active-duty troops and more than 750,000 civilians.

Neither Hegseth nor Oz are qualified for their positions.

But this is of little importance to Trump, who is appointing a series of loyal disrupters to powerful jobs to remake Washington and the administrative state.

And keeping to his showbiz theme, Trump nominated former pro-wrestling executive Linda McMahon late on Tuesday has his pick for education secretary.

The choices reveal that Trump is still a true believer in the power of TV and broadcast media to propel individuals to stardom and influence millions.

In Trumpland, a media personality with the right look, the right following and right political allegiance can be more valuable than an appointment based on merit.

Remember that Trump was the star of his own reality TV show, The Apprentice, that helped to rebuild his career and reputation, serving as a platform for a successful presidential bid in 2016.

Trump had no political credentials that distinguished him as a serious contender. He was an outsider. But he did have a TV show that became a cultural phenomenon, a natural charisma and a sense of showmanship. And he won.

These are all qualities that Trump finds impressive.

Given his disappointment at the more traditional cabinet selections in his first administration, Trump is now reverting to instinct and making some selections based on what he knows best: the power of outsiders with powerful media profiles to shake things up.

When this lens is applied, the appointment of Oz meets all the key Trump criteria.

In December 2017, at the end of his first year in power, The New York Times reported that Trump – before taking office – told his top aides to “think of each presidential day as an episode in a television show in which he vanquishes rivals”.

Given the scale of his political comeback and the audacious cabinet nominations so far, this attitude appears an even more apt description of Trump 2.0.

Whether Oz and Kennedy can work effectively together to run America’s health system is vastly unclear – but it will certainly make for a great show.