DeSantis pushes Florida surgeon general for CDC director role

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wants President Donald Trump to tap Sunshine State Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo as Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director.

DeSantis contends that the public health official could do more for the state at the CDC than he can now.

“Overhauling the CDC would be beneficial to FL. Joe could do more for FL as CDC Director than as FL Surgeon General,” the governor said in a post on X. 

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, left, is pushing Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo for CDC director. (Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images | Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

DeSantis agreed with someone who suggested that Ladapo “as CDC Director is the right pick, the transformative pick, the history making pick, the pick that would save the Republic.”

“Dr. Joe Ladapo is all of those things and has the courage and determination to do what’s right when it’s not easy,” the governor declared in a tweet. “Lapado as CDC Director means that MAHA [Make America Healthy Again] is not just an empty slogan.”

President Donald Trump announced that he was tapping former U.S. Rep. Dr. Dave Weldon for the role last year, but earlier this month, the White House pulled his nomination, so the president now needs to tap someone else for the post.

“Twelve hours before my scheduled confirmation hearing in The Senate, I received a phone call from an assistant at the White House informing me that my nomination to be Director of CDC was being withdrawn because there were not enough votes to get me confirmed,” Weldon said in a statement that has been posted online by the New York Times and Washington Post. 

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“I then spoke to HHS Secretary Bobbie Kennedy who was very upset. He was told the same thing and that he had been looking forward to working with me at CDC. He said I was the perfect person for the job.”

Last year, DeSantis floated Ladapo for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services before Trump announced Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for that role.

DESANTIS FLOATS FLORIDA SURGEON GENERAL DR. JOSEPH LADAPO AS CANDIDATE FOR TRUMP’S HHS SECRETARY

Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo delivers remarks during a bill-signing ceremony with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on April 8, 2024, in Sanford, Florida. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

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“Retweet if you’d like to see this man — Dr. Joseph Ladapo — serve as the Secretary of HHS in the new Trump administration,” DeSantis tweeted in November, sharing Ladapo’s photo in the post.