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Trump picks White House adviser Heidi Overton to run FDA, source says
President Donald Trump has chosen White House policy adviser Heidi Overton to lead the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, according to a source familiar with the matter. Overton, a doctor and current deputy director of the White House domestic policy council, would require Senate confirmation to take over an agency that has seen significant staff departures and ongoing public health challenges.
President Donald Trump has chosen White House policy adviser Heidi Overton to lead the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), a source familiar with the matter said on Tuesday (August 18, 2026), months after the previous commissioner, Marty Makary, resigned.
The selection was first reported by Bloomberg, and the White House, the FDA, and Overton did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
Overton, a doctor by training, currently serves as deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council and previously worked at the America First Policy Institute, a conservative think tank. Her medical degree is from the University of New Mexico, and she trained in general surgery at Johns Hopkins and pursued clinical-investigation research training at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Last week, Overton appeared at a White House event where Trump announced an executive order calling for reducing the childhood vaccine schedule and splitting the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine into three separate shots—a change that could take drug developers years to achieve.
According to the source, Overton was among three candidates, including oncologist Jeffrey Vacirca and Pentagon health official Stephen Ferrara, that the administration focused on for Trump to nominate as FDA commissioner. She would need Senate confirmation if formally nominated.
Turbulence at the FDA
Overton would take over an agency that has seen significant upheaval during the second Trump administration. The FDA has lost more than 3,000 staff, including division heads, over the past year, and is under pressure to rebuild confidence among industry and public-health groups amid concerns that the regulator has become too political.
The vacancy arose in May, when then-Commissioner Marty Makary resigned 13 months into the job after clashing with top White House and health advisers and drew scrutiny over a series of contentious agency decisions. Makary was criticized for his handling of the reintroduction of flavored vapes, a stalled abortion-pill review, and public disagreements with drugmakers.
Kyle Diamantas has been running the FDA as acting chief since May. Under his leadership, the FDA reversed course or reopened regulatory pathways for rare-disease therapies from companies including Regenxbio, uniQure, and Replimune, and launched steps designed to speed up drug research by pairing sponsors with qualified research institutions.
Overton’s nomination comes against a backdrop of other senior departures. Vinay Prasad, the FDA’s biologics division chief, departed in April amid controversy over vaccine trial revisions and rare-disease drug rejections.
Public health challenges and policy stances
The agency has spent much of the second Trump administration dealing with disease outbreaks and staffing shortages. An ongoing independent review is examining the link between widely used antidepressants and the risk of autism. The FDA was investigating a cyclospora outbreak linked to tainted iceberg lettuce and a multi-state salmonella outbreak tied to jalapeño peppers. Tens of thousands of Americans have become ill with cyclospora, and two people have died in connection with the outbreaks; hundreds more were sickened in the salmonella incident. In February 2026, the U.S. Government Accountability Office reported that the FDA is facing staffing shortages.
Overton has been a close ally of the president and has played a role in some of his health policies. She has promoted Trump’s “most favored nation” deals with drug companies and has been critical of abortion pills, having written articles calling abortion “corrosive” to women and calling abortion pills “far more dangerous to women.” She celebrated the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. Overton has also described mifepristone as “teleabortion” and “abortion-on-demand.”
She also appeared to have a strained relationship with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on some areas, including how Kennedy reshaped the U.S. food pyramid and how to regulate the peptide industry. Overton has been a staunch defender of Makary, whom she called a “rock star” in a comment that has been circulating, and she urged “blue states” to adopt the administration’s “gold standard” recommendations on childhood vaccines.
Trump has repeatedly claimed, without evidence, that the vaccine changes would improve autism rates, even though studies have found no connection between autism and vaccines.
Reactions and next steps
The selection has drawn reactions from key figures. Senator Bill Cassidy, a Republican who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, criticized Trump’s actions to sow doubt in vaccinations, including the order to split the MMR vaccine. Democratic Senator Patty Murray of Washington called Overton a “far-right, anti-abortion extremist” with no business leading the FDA.
The American Academy of Pediatrics described the executive order to split the MMR vaccine as “not only disheartening but dangerous.”
If confirmed, Overton would lead one of the most powerful jobs in U.S. health care. She has not run a large agency before. The FDA has spent the bulk of the second Trump administration in tumult amid widespread job cuts and disease outbreaks.
How this outlet told it
The Hindu — World
Framing: Focuses on the source saying Trump picked Overton, emphasizing the report is based on a source; doesn't mention her policy positions or controversies. — Neutral and informative; quotes 'source familiar' and provides factual background.
Facts Included:
Trump has chosen Heidi Overton to lead the FDA, source familiar with the matter said on Tuesday (August 18, 2026).
Overton is deputy director of the White House domestic policy council and a doctor by training.
She previously worked at the America First Policy Institute.
Her medical degree is from the University of New Mexico; she trained in general surgery at Johns Hopkins and pursued clinical-investigation research training at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Overton appeared at a White House event where Trump announced an executive order on reducing the childhood vaccine schedule and splitting the MMR vaccine.
Overton was among three candidates, including oncologist Jeffrey Vacirca and Pentagon health official Stephen Ferrara.
Kyle Diamantas has been acting chief since May, when Marty Makary resigned 13 months into the job.
Makary drew criticism for his handling of flavored vapes reintroduction, a stalled abortion-pill review, and public disagreements with drugmakers.
Since Diamantas took over, the FDA reversed course or reopened regulatory paths for Regenxbio, uniQure, and Replimune.
FDA launched steps to speed up drug research by pairing sponsors with research institutions.
Vinay Prasad departed in April amid controversy over vaccine trial revisions and rare-disease drug rejections.
The FDA has lost more than 3,000 staff, including division heads, over the past year.
Each row is one claim, attributed to the outlet whose wording states it most clearly. Confidence rates how directly the source text states the claim — explicit and unhedged rates high; hedged, pieced-together, or internally inconsistent statements rate lower. It does not measure whether the claim is true. Status counts the distinct outlets we found asserting it — so a single-source claim can still show high confidence, and a multi-source claim can show medium. Every one of those outlets is named beside the status, so you can check the count against the list. For claims extracted before we began storing that list, the row says so: it names the outlet the claim is quoted from and states that we have not recorded which outlets backed it. Outlets wrote at different times, so a figure that evolves — a casualty count, for example — can legitimately differ between rows; check the "as of" time next to each claim's source.
Claim
Confidence
Status
ClaimDonald Trump has chosen or picked Dr. Heidi Overton to lead the Food and Drug Administration.
ClaimHeidi Overton appeared at a White House event where Trump announced an executive order on reducing the childhood vaccine schedule and splitting the MMR vaccine.
ClaimHeidi Overton was one of three candidates, including oncologist Jeffrey Vacirca and Pentagon health official Stephen Ferrara, for Trump to nominate as FDA commissioner.
ClaimSince Kyle Diamantas took over as acting chief, the FDA reversed course or reopened regulatory paths for rare-disease therapies from Regenxbio, uniQure, and Replimune.
ClaimThe FDA launched steps aimed at speeding up drug research by pairing sponsors with qualified research institutions to shorten the time from drug identification to first-in-human studies.
ClaimMarty Makary drew criticism for his handling of the reintroduction of flavored vapes, a stalled abortion-pill review, and public disagreements with drugmakers.
ClaimBill Cassidy, chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, has been a vocal critic of some of Trump's actions to sow doubt in vaccinations, including the MMR order.
ClaimPatty Murray, a Democratic senator from Washington, said Heidi Overton is a far-right, anti-abortion extremist who has no business leading the FDA.
ClaimHeidi Overton attended medical school at the University of New Mexico and has a doctoral degree in clinical investigation from Johns Hopkins University, according to her LinkedIn profile.
ClaimThe FDA proposed a rule change that would require food manufacturers to notify regulators before introducing new ingredients or additives into processed or packaged foods.
ClaimUnder Kennedy, the FDA has set up extra hurdles for vaccine testing and blocked the publication of research into the effectiveness of COVID-19 shots.
ClaimOverton participated in Trump's signing last week of an executive order aimed at reducing the number of standard childhood vaccinations from 18 to 11.
ClaimTrump repeatedly claimed, without evidence, that the change would improve autism rates, even though studies have found no connection between autism and vaccines.