Trump picks Dr. Heidi Overton, a top White House aide, to lead FDA
Aug 19, 2026, 9:31 AM
Heidi Overton, deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, speaks during a meeting to sign an executive order about vaccines, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Credit: AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin
(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Dr. Heidi Overton, a top White House aide, has been picked to lead the Food and Drug Administration, President Donald Trump announced Wednesday.
As a medical doctor and deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council who has worked on several of Trump’s second-term health initiatives, Overton has become a trusted figure in the administration and a champion of the president’s goals.
Yet any new FDA commissioner will have to balance a raft of competing priorities, between Trump’s fixations, the anti-regulatory interests of traditional Republicans and the anti-corporate posture of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Those challenges dogged the tenure of the previous FDA head, Dr. Marty Makary, who resigned in May, leaving behind unfinished projects including work on ultraprocessed foods, antidepressants and COVID-19 shots.
Referring to a “Dr. Heidi” in a Truth Social post, Trump called Overton a smart and respected “rockstar” who would deliver on his priorities of faster cures, innovation, lower drug prices and more wins for Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again movement.
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AP Health Writer Matthew Perrone contributed to this report.
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