Trump announced the appointment of Dr. David Weldon, a former Congressman from Florida, as director of the Centers for Disease Control. He has unorthodox views, to say the least. But we can always count on the Secretary of Health and Human Services, to maintain the integrity of our premier public health agency.
Oh, wait, Trump’s nominee for Secretary is the noted conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Is Trump trying to gut our public health agencies? How many career physicians who are noted authorities in their field will quit rather than work for know-nothings?
The New York Times reported about Dr. Weldon:
President-elect Donald J. Trump chose Dr. David Weldon, a former congressman, on Friday to serve as the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Dr. Weldon, 71, is a native of Long Island and earned a medical degree in New York before moving to Florida to practice. Starting in 1995, he served seven terms in Congress, representing the 15th District of Florida, before forgoing re-election and returning to his medical practice.
As a member of Congress, Dr. Weldon pushed the false notion that thimerosal, a preservative compound in some vaccines, had caused an explosion of autism — a hypothesis that experts say has no evidence. He also introduced a “vaccine safety bill” that aimed to relocate most vaccine safety research from the C.D.C. — which he said had an “inherent conflict of interest” — to a separate agency within the Department of Health and Human Services.
Mr. Trump’s choice signals yet again his commitment to reforming the role of federal health agencies in radical ways. Though Dr. Weldon is an internist, his skepticism of vaccine safety and concern about C.D.C. overreach echo those of other nominees, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“In addition to being a Medical Doctor for 40 years, and an Army Veteran, Dave has been a respected conservative leader on fiscal and social issues,” Mr. Trump wrote in a statement released Friday night, saying that Dr. Weldon would “restore the CDC to its true purpose.”
“Americans have lost trust in the CDC and in our Federal Health Authorities, who have engaged in censorship, data manipulation, and misinformation. Given the current Chronic Health Crisis in our Country, the CDC must step up and correct past errors to focus on the Prevention of Disease.”
As a member of congress, Dr. Weldon also authored the so-called Weldon Amendment, which barred the Department of Health and Human Services from funding federal or state programs that “discriminated” against health insurance plans that did not cover abortions.
He unsuccessfully sought a Senate seat in 2012 and a Florida House seat in 2024.Dr. Weldon also served as president of the Alliance of Health Care Sharing Ministries, a trade group for Christian organizations that offered an alternative to traditional health insurance.
The groups have come under scrutiny for potentially misleading people into thinking the groups had some legal obligation to pay their medical claims. Dr. Weldon has said that the members of his association were clear that they were not offering insurance, which is subject to strict regulations.
For the first time, the incoming C.D.C. director will need Senate confirmation. If Dr. Weldon is successful, he will sit at the helm of an agency with a budget of more than $15 billion, which has historically been used to track and respond to infectious disease outbreaks.
But Mr. Trump’s choice to lead its parent agency, the Department of Health and Human Services, is Mr. Kennedy, who has been outspoken about his plans to deprioritize communicable disease research in favor of preventive medicine.
If Mr. Kennedy, too, is confirmed by the Senate, the mission and focus of the C.D.C.’s work may change.
Reed Abelson contributed reporting.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Federal oversight is necessary where health and well-being are at stake. The states certainly are not equipped to handle this role particularly when some states are governed by assorted “kooks and charlatans.” Communicable diseases cross state borders and are a national threat and concern. While there is nothing wrong with trying to make Americans healthier through lifestyle choices, it is not the solution for all conditions and diseases that need to be treated through science and scientific research.
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Seriously…. Why is that even a question?
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“For the first time, the incoming C.D.C. director will need Senate confirmation.” Thank goodness.
To paraphrase the economy line, “It’s the confirmations stupid.” (And, getting to 2026 to flip the Senate back).
2016 was not an outlier. Sure it was tv game show host, ego, all about rallying cries and deregulation, blame experts, buffoon, no filter and it was CHAOS.
2017-2020. Revolving door cabinet. Not a clue. He wasn’t organized enough to disrupt anything. But the Heritage Foundation, America First Policy Institute, and others cracked the code in the chaos. Disrupt the old system. Disrupt the system of all systems. They’re not ending democracy, they’re playing it like a violin. How?
Blogs and explanations are essential and exposing suspicious backgrounds and affiliations critical. But Confirmation questions must ask about the effects on the price of milk and basic health care; projected middle class jobs lost; budgets of left-behind neighborhood public schools; rural hospital closings; rampant teacher, doctor, and nurse shortages and more. Google them. And google “measles before 1963.”
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Diane,
We all need to understand their game plan. First destroy the value of all agencies that we depend on, then orchestrate a hostile takeover so that they can realize the monetary gains for themselves and their allies. They have been working on this for several decades, first with education now with healthcare, defense, and immigration.
We have been hearing the mantra that we need to save Democracy. The mantra should be, “we need to save capitalism as we know it.” Because if we don’t the majority of us will be thrown into the peasant class. Trump’s tariffs have nothing to do with China, it is all about getting us to contribute to the coffers of those in charge. Isn’t that what the peasants did during the Middle Ages?
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The Putin-Trump-MAGA cancer is spreading.
FIRST this malignant cancer spread throughout the republican party and any members of the party who publicly resisted were targeted, threatened and pushed out. Those who kept quiet but don’t vote the way the cancer wants them to, will be the next to go.
At the same time this is happening, the malignant Putin-Trump MAGA cancer was spreading through red states stripping them of all elements of democracy and weaponizing them to “fight like hell” to spread further into the federal government, destroying everything.
SECOND major target, the courts and all federal agencies including the Department of justice, getting rid of everyone who doesn’t show total loyalty to this cancer.
THIRD, taking over the US military, with fascists in charge who are only loyal to Trump. There will be a major purge to get rid of officers and troops that resist.
Once the malignant Trump-MAGA cancer has infected the US military, the troops will be used to pacify the blue states.
FOURTH: Purge the population of any resistance to this cancer. That’s what the concentration camps are really for. That could add up to sixty-million deaths or more.
Resistance means fighting fire with fire and the sooner they get started the better chance they will have to stamp out this cancer before it becomes terminal. I don’t think there is going to be an easy way to do this.
Anyone who’s had radiation and chemotherapy to fight cancer in their bodies, knows what that means. It’s going to take courage. It’s going to be painful.
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HOW TO STOP TRUMP FROM ISSUING “NATIONAL EMERGENCIES” TO SEIZE POWER
The 2011 “National Emergency Powers” report by the Congressional Research Service lists the essential elements of an emergency condition:
An emergency is sudden, unforeseen, and of unknown duration.
An emergency is dangerous and threatening to life and well-being.
An emergency requires immediate action because it was unanticipated.
Do issues such as the U.S./Mexico border situation and the presence of illegal immigrants in the U.S. qualify as “emergencies”?
So, the situation at the border does not constitute an unforeseen, unanticipated “emergency”. The situation at the border can be dealt with by normal passage of laws by Congress.
THE NONDELEGATION DOCTRINE
This Doctrine is a legal path to stopping the improvident use of the National Emergency Act by any President. Here’s how:
Article I, Section 1, states: “All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.”
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in “Immigration & Naturalization Service v. Chadha” that the clear intent of our Constitution is that laws are to be written by our nation’s bicameral Congress, not by some other entity, including the Executive Branch. In that ruling, the Court pointed out our Founding Fathers’ intent by reserving the legislative power for a bicameral Congress was to erect constitutionally enduring checks on each Branch and to protect the people from the improvident exercise of power by the Executive Branch and by governmental agencies.
Congress cannot delegate its constitutional role and duty to a President or any other agent, unless there is a valid sudden, unanticipated emergency, and that is not the case with the U.S./Mexico border situation, or with the illegal immigrant situation, or with other situations for which the president-elect has indicated he will issue declarations under the National Emergency Act.
SLOWNESS IS NOT A REASON
The Court also stated in Chadha that the slow, deliberate pace of legislation in Congress does not constitute a reason for Congress to delegate away its legislative responsibility: The Court declared that “There is no support in the Constitution or decisions of this Court for the proposition that the cumbersomeness and delays often encountered in complying with explicit constitutional standards may be avoided, either by the Congress or by the President. With all the obvious flaws of delay, untidiness, and potential for abuse, we have not yet found a better way to preserve freedom than by making the exercise of power subject to the carefully crafted restraints spelled out in the Constitution.”
Because issues like the U.S./Mexico border management and the presence of illegal immigrants in the U.S. are issues that evolved over decades of inaction by Congress, these issues do not constitute “sudden, unanticipated emergencies” and therefore cannot be addressed by presidential declarations of “national emergencies”. It is Congress’s constitutional duty and sole prerogative to address these issues by legislation.
Nor can Congress delegate its authority to special agents, such as the proposed “Department of Government Efficiency” because as the Court also pointed out in Chadra: “[T]he fact that a given law or procedure is efficient, convenient, and useful in facilitating functions of government, standing alone, will not save it if it is contrary to the Constitution. Convenience and efficiency are not the primary objectives — or the hallmarks — of democratic government.”
Interestingly, various U.S. states and private corporations currently have cases before the Court which use the same nondelegation doctrine argument in an attempt to terminate rules and regulations issued by governmental agencies, such as the Environmental Protection Agency. If the Court upholds the nondelegation doctrine against the EPA and other agencies, the Court will have to uphold the nondelegation doctrine against the use of the National Emergency Act to address non-emergency issues that our Constitution states are the duty of Congress to address by the legislative process set forth in our Constitution.
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Timothy Snyder distills Trump’s Cabinet appointments to their essence: it’s a decapitation strike.
https://snyder.substack.com/p/decapitation-strike
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