President Donald Trump’s nomination of Heidi Overton to lead the Food and Drug Administration spurred pushback from some Make America Healthy Again advocates, setting up a fight between the administration and part of the base that helped propel Trump to his second term.
Turning Point USA’s Alex Clark, a leading online voice in the MAHA movement, recently called on her followers to oppose Overton’s nomination, in part accusing the key Trump aide of having ties to big pharmaceutical companies.
Her comments prompted a back-and-forth with White House spokesman Kush Desai, who argued that Overton didn’t write a February glyphosate executive order signed by Trump but only “pushed as many MAHA-minded edits as possible” to it.
Right-wing voice Laura Loomer also criticized Overton as “another DEI hire.”
Not everyone within the MAHA movement opposes Overton — another MAHA advocate called her “an accomplished physician” — previewing an intra-movement debate ahead of her confirmation process.
— Shelby Talcott