By Alejandra Jaramillo

(CNN) — President Donald Trump on Thursday pulled his embattled surgeon general nominee, Dr. Casey Means, amid questions over her vaccine views and announced his third pick for the role in Dr. Nicole Saphier.

“Nicole is a STAR physician who has spent her career guiding women facing breast cancer through their diagnosis and treatment while tirelessly advocating to increase early cancer detection and prevention, while at the same time working with men and women on all other forms of cancer diagnoses and treatments,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“She is also an INCREDIBLE COMMUNICATOR, who makes complicated health issues more easily understood by all Americans,” he added.

Saphier, a longtime Fox News contributor, is a radiologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

She has called herself someone who “questions the vaccine schedule” and applauded the recent US Department of Health and Human Services decision to make Covid-19 shots available after a conversation with a healthcare provider, particularly for patients at lower risk from the infection, such as school-age children.

But she has also called the drop in measles vaccine coverage for kids “a problem.”

“I know 2% doesn’t really sound like that big of a deal, but I can tell you, that 2% difference, it’s tens of hundreds of thousands of children, and it’s enough to fuel localized outbreaks, and that’s a problem,” Saphier said on her podcast, “Wellness Unmasked.”

She has also criticized HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., calling his use of a nicotine product during a Senate hearing “disturbing.”

“Here is a figure publicly advocating for health, yet engaging in the use of a highly addictive product while doing so,” she wrote in an op-ed for the New York Post last year.

“In its most charitable interpretation, the incident shows how even those championing health can be ensnared by the allure of nicotine’s addictive nature.”

A Fox News spokesperson confirmed that Saphier’s contract has been terminated. Fox typically severs its contributor relationships as soon as Trump taps one of its TV personalities for a job – something that has happened many times over Trump’s two terms in office.

This is Trump’s third nominee for surgeon general in his second term. His first, Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, a New York family physician and former Fox News medical contributor, saw her nomination pulled just days before her Senate confirmation hearing was set to begin last year.

Means’ nomination had languished since her tense confirmation hearing in February. A Stanford-educated medical doctor, she’s well-connected to the “Make America Healthy Again” movement as the author of a best-selling book, “Good Energy,” and a close ally of Kennedy’s

Even among MAHA and Trump supporters, she faced skepticism. Some in the MAHA sphere lamented her noncommittal stance on vaccines, while Laura Loomer, Trump’s self described “loyalty enforcer,” frequently questioned Means’ support for the president.

And increasingly, the Means vote had looked like a proxy battle over Kennedy, who over the past year has plunged ahead on vaccine policy changes that have rankled some Republicans across the spectrum.

Shortly before announcing Saphier as Means’ replacement, Trump took to Truth Social to blast Sen. Bill Cassidy, who pressed Means on vaccine policy during her confirmation hearing before the committee he chairs.

Trump accused the Louisiana Republican, whom he’s endorsed against in his Senate reelection campaign, of standing in the way of Means, whose nomination had been championed by Kennedy.

“I nominated Casey, a strong MAHA Warrior, at the recommendation of Secretary Kennedy, who understands the MAHA Movement better than anyone, with perhaps the possible exception of ME!” Trump wrote.

“Nevertheless, despite Senator Cassidy’s intransigence and political games, Casey will continue to fight for MAHA on the many important Health issues facing our Country, such as the rising childhood disease epidemic, increased autism rates, poor nutrition, over-medicalization, and researching the root causes of infertility, and many other difficult medical problems,” he added.

Cassidy brushed off Trump’s attacks against him on Thursday.

“I am loyal to the United States of America, and I’m going to do my darndest work with the president whenever we’re working for the best for the United States of America,” he told CNN when asked about Trump’s Truth Social post.

From the beginning, Means’ nomination was trailed by criticisms of her policy positions and questions about her credentials: She did not complete her residency, and her medical license has lapsed.

CNN previously reported that prior to being withdrawn, Means had for more than a month sought private meetings with the two Republican senators threatening to sink her nomination.

But as of earlier this month, the meetings with Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins hadn’t happened. Murkowski told CNN in mid-March that she was “not enthusiastic about her.”

The surgeon general, known as “the nation’s doctor,” is a physician who focuses on educating and advising Americans on how to improve their health by issuing advisories, reports and calls to action to offer the best available scientific information on crucial issues.

The surgeon general also serves in the US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, overseeing this group of uniformed officers who seek to promote the nation’s health.

Saphier previously expressed doubts about Means being the right person for the role.

The surgeon general needs the skills to “effectively communicate with the public” and be a “trusted messenger,” she said on her podcast in February.

The administration has a “messaging problem, and we’re trying to bridge that gap of public health trust,” Saphier said.

“I’d really like to see a little bit more reaching across the aisle when it comes to public health,” she said. “That doesn’t mean it has to be some Democratic nominee for surgeon general. Maybe just someone a little less aligned with the MAHA movement who, I don’t know, finished their residency and has an active medical license.”

This story has been updated with additional information.

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