One of the most iconic portfolios in health care, that of the administrator of the Center for Health Care Services, which “runs” Medicare and Medicaid, destines the well-known telecaster physician and Pennsylvania Senate candidate, Mehmet Oz (“Dr. Oz”), the newly elected U.S. President, Donald Trump.

“America is facing a healthcare crisis and there may not be a doctor more qualified and capable than Dr. Oz to make America healthy again,” Donald Trump said yesterday in announcing his intentions for Mehmet Oz, who was defeated in the 2022 Senate midterm election by John Fetterman, in one of the most crucial electoral states in the United States. At the same time, the newly elected president yesterday praised “Dr. Oz”, even though for a part of the US academic and medical community he remains a controversial figure and an advocate of alternative therapies and slimming methods.

This, coupled with Robert Kennedy Jr’s pick for the Department of Health and Human Services focused attention on the US healthcare sector, all the more so when the Center, which has responsibility for Medicare and Medicaid absorbs in spending 25% of the federal budget, or $1.6 trillion.

However, Mehmet Oz remains firmly in the thoughts of Donald Trump, whom he appointed in 2018 to the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition and openly supported in the 2022 midterm elections.

From the studios to politics

The Telstar doctor and Turkish national, Mehmet who has his star on “Avenue of Glory” in Hollywood, aspires to become a shining star of the American political scene, after claiming to be the Republican front-runner for Congress from the state of Pennsylvania in 2022.

A successful radial thoracic surgeon, “celebrity doctor,” close associate of Oprah Winfrey, and host of the eponymous telemedicine show “The Dr. Oz Show” (which has won 10 Emmys), “Dr. Oz” had Trump’s wholehearted support in the midterm elections, at a time when his friendly relations with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his real intentions for U.S. foreign policy were under the spotlight.

A friend of many of the world-class US stars, with a glamorous lifestyle, huge earnings from eight best-selling alternative medicine and self-help books he has authored, and untold profits from TV productions, Mehmet Oz was not content with financial comfort and his pan-American television fame but attempted his entry into Congress by “liquidating” his medical-medical path at the Philadelphia polls.

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, the child of Turkish immigrants, with dual citizenship, American and Turkish, and Muslim in religion, Mehmet Oz graduated from Harvard Medical School and then worked at major U.S. medical centers, most recently NY Presbyterian-Columbia Medical Center, having taught at Columbia University in between.

Unmistakably, Mehmet Oz, 64, would embody the Turkish version of the “American dream” to the fullest extent if he did not refuse to renounce his Turkish citizenship (although dual citizenship is allowed by law), despite being a potential candidate for the US Congress, causing skepticism in much of the American press.

Otherwise, his glamorous and successful professional career in the US, together with the huge name recognition he enjoys, seems to have overcome all individual resistance, as he was also the first Muslim Senate candidate to passionately fight against “Islamophobia” in the US on social media.

After all, Mehmet Oz enjoys the full support of the new US president, who did not hesitate to appear on the famous TV show in 2016, when he was then vying for the White House. During the years of Trump’s presidency, Mehmet Oz was tapped to the President’s Council on Sports and Nutrition, and in support of his candidacy, Donald Trump toured Pennsylvania specifically for him on the campaign trail.

In addition to Donald Trump, Mehmet Oz also maintains friendly ties with the president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and his administration, according to the Washington Post, while photos of the Erdogan couple chatting with the famous TV host were posted on social media by the Turkish Embassy in Washington ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.

Mehmet Oz’s conflation, moreover, of several long-standing positions of the Erdogan presidency, such as the Senate candidate’s non-recognition of the Armenian Genocide, had previously united the Greek-American, Jewish, and Armenian diaspora in the US, whose representatives gathered outside the “Dr. Oz” campaign headquarters, asking Pennsylvania voters to “stop him.”