Trump’s CDC Pick Is a Standard Bureaucrat. MAHA Activists Are Furious.

Nominating a career public servant like Susan Monarez to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would once have been considered an obvious choice.

But her public health bona fides — which include a position as director of medical preparedness policy at the White House, a stint as a top adviser to the Department of Homeland Security and her current role as the acting director of the CDC — are exactly why the Make America Healthy Again movement is so against Monarez’s nomination. MAHA leaders have made their displeasure with Monarez — and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — exceedingly clear on social media.

“One step forward, two steps back,” Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vaccine group founded by Kennedy, wrote on social media in response to news of Monarez’s nomination. (Kennedy stepped down from a leadership role with the group when he began his own presidential campaign in 2023.)

A grassroots MAHA organization, Citizens MAHA, chimed in to add, “Why does it sound like Susan Monarez is a female mini-Fauci? Dear @realDonaldTrump, this is NOT what #MAHA voted for.”

Some of Monarez’s critics pointed to posts the CDC made on X during the Biden administration in support of masks, lockdowns and vaccines, claiming they were evidence of Monarez’s non-MAHA values. The uproar prompted Kennedy to respond, writing on X that while it was understandable that such claims would provoke “agita within the MAHA movement,” they were erroneous.

“I handpicked Susan for this job because she is a longtime champion of MAHA values, and a caring, compassionate and brilliant microbiologist and a tech wizard who will reorient CDC toward public health and gold-standard science,” Kennedy added. “I’m so grateful to President Trump for making this appointment.”

It’s rare for the MAHA movement to break so publicly with Kennedy, who is generally regarded as one of its kingpins.

But in response to Kennedy’s post, Mary Talley Bowden, founder of the anti-vaccine organization Americans for Health Freedom and a Kennedy ally, wrote on social media, “Actions speak louder than words. Will she continue to recommend all babies get 3 mRNA shots by the age of 9 months?”

While Monarez’s personal views on vaccines aren’t clear, she has never spoken publicly against vaccines. She did not respond to a request for comment.

Trump’s selection of a relatively safe nominee for the CDC may have been influenced by the last-minute withdrawal of his former pick, Dave Weldon, a staunch anti-vaccine advocate and former congressman who reportedly did not convince enough senators that he was the right candidate for the job. Weldon said in a statement made after his nomination was rescinded that Kennedy was “very upset.”

“He said I was the perfect person for the job,” Weldon wrote.

After Weldon’s withdrawal, some MAHA advocates, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, called for Trump to nominate Florida surgeon general Joseph Ladapo to run the CDC. Ladapo has drawn criticism for opposing some vaccines, telling parents it’s up to them whether to send their unvaccinated children to school during a measles outbreak and trying to ban fluoride from Florida’s water.

Faced with alternatives that have backed anti-science positions, some public health experts were happy to get behind Monarez’s candidacy — but even they had reservations.

“Amongst the options mentioned in media reports, she was a less threatening candidate than most,” said one CDC official, who requested anonymity in order to speak candidly. “It is good that she has been at the CDC for over a month already, so there will be less disruption during what will be a difficult time with impending [reductions in force].”

Still, the CDC official added, they would need to see how Monarez manages vaccines, HIV and global health.

If confirmed, Monarez would be the first nonphysician to lead the CDC since the 1950s.

Like the other health agencies, the CDC has been roiled by recent personnel and funding cuts made by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency and by executive order. At the same time, it’s been forced to deal with an ongoing measles outbreak and a slate of new, transparency-focused initiatives helmed by Kennedy.

A former NIH official who also requested anonymity to speak candidly said that while Monarez’s background — and lack of public notoriety — was “positive,” they would withhold judgement until seeing whether Monarez would be willing to “speak truth to power.”

“It’s hard to believe they would give a position like that to anyone who doesn’t fully understand and agree with the expectation that their job is to never say no to the president,” said the former NIH official.

Still, the former NIH official wasn’t unhappy to hear that Monarez’s nomination has been met with resistance from MAHA.

“The more pissed off they are, the better a pick she probably is,” they said.

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Margaret Manto is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.