News/Commentary

‘Snake’: Dr. Oz drops Trump from homepage, folks don’t buy his reason

June 23, 2022 | | Print Article

It appears that Dr. Mehmet Oz has no more need for former President Donald Trump’s influence on his Senate campaign in Pennsylvania.

Less than five months until the 2022 midterm elections and the television celebrity doctor has dropped many of the references to the former president who endorsed his campaign despite criticism and likely helped him clinch the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania.

Before Trump officially endorsed him in April, Oz kept the 45th president a central part of his campaign, frequently running ads highlighting Trump and keeping his name on his social media accounts. Trump was even criticized for his support of Oz who was greeted with boos at a Pennsylvania MAGA rally when he was introduced.

Once Trump officially backed him, Oz kept the former president in the thick of his campaign leading up to the May 17 primary, with an “endorsed by President Trump” message on many of his ads on guns, abortion and energy.  According to an analysis by Axios, “Oz’s Twitter account mentioned Trump more than 70 times between the endorsement on April 9 and primary day, May 17.”

Once his nomination was secured, however, Oz seems to have made a major shift in his campaign. There was no mention of Trump in the ad that followed his primary win and his social media pages appear to have been reimagined as well, with just a simple message saying “Thank you, Pennsylvania,” and no longer photos of the former president.

“Oz’s Twitter bio no longer advertises him as the ‘Trump Endorsed Candidate for U.S. Senate,’ and he hasn’t tweeted about Trump since May 17,” Axios reported. “Oz’s campaign hasn’t run Facebook ads since the primary, and on Google his only general election ad reads, ‘The PA Senate Race will determine who has the majority. Donate to take back the US Senate!⁩'”

While he has not posted about Trump since the primary on the former president’s Truth Social platform, Oz still has the endorsement listed in his bio there and the endorsement is still found on his campaign page.

Oz spokesperson Brittany Yanick explained the changes to Axios.

“The endorsement is the first endorsement listed on our website and we changed the banner to thank Pennsylvanians after the recount was completed,” she said.

Reactions on Twitter were mixed, but most were not kind:

 

Frieda Powers
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