Trump chooses former Rep. Doug Collins to run Veterans Affairs

Doug Collins, a former congressman from Georgia, is President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to run the Department of Veterans Affairs.

“We must take care of our brave men and women in uniform,” Trump said in a statement Thursday.

Collins is a chaplain in the U.S. Air Force Reserve Command. The Republican served in Congress from 2013 to 2021, and he helped defend Trump during his first impeachment process.

Earlier, Trump said he will nominate anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, putting a man whose views public health officials have decried as dangerous in charge of a massive agency that oversees everything from drug, vaccine and food safety to medical research and the social safety net programs Medicare and Medicaid.

“For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation when it comes to Public Health,” Trump said Thursday in a post on his Truth Social site announcing the appointment. Kennedy, he said, would “end the Chronic Disease epidemic" and “Make America Great and Healthy Again!”