Trump’s NIH director isn’t the only one wearing multiple hats during the president’s second term

The Trump administration has repeatedly assigned additional job roles to Cabinet members and other officials and one of his top health officials is the latest to begin pulling double-duty for the president. 

On Wednesday, National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Jay Bhattacharya became the latest Trump official assigned an additional role. The NIH chief and staunch COVID contrarian will temporarily run the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) until a new permanent director is appointed by President Donald Trump and subsequently confirmed by the Senate, while continuing to lead the NIH.

Bhattacharya’s move to the CDC followed the departure of Jim O’Neill, who was also deputy secretary of the Health and Human Services Department amid a broader restructuring of the Trump administration’s public health agencies. O’Neill is now reportedly expected to lead the National Science Foundation.

Fox News Digital looked back on the various Trump Cabinet members and officials wearing multiple hats as the president adjusts during the second year of his second term.

 

A physician, former Stanford professor of medicine and senior fellow at the university’s Institute for Economic Policy Research, Bhattacharya was a leading voice during the COVID-19 pandemic against lockdown measures and vaccine mandates. He was one of the co-authors of the Great Barrington Declaration, a document published in October 2020 by a group of scientists advocating against widespread COVID lockdowns and promoting the efficacy of natural immunity for low-risk individuals as opposed to vaccination.

Under Bhattacharya’s tenure, he has been forced to defend certain funding cuts tied to academic research and staffing. One of the core components Bhattacharya indicated that he wanted to pursue following his confirmation was to usher in a new age of “gold standard science.”

“I think fundamentally what matters is do scientists have an idea that advances the scientific field they’re in?” Bhattacharya said during his March confirmation testimony. “Do they have an idea that ends up addressing the of Americans?”

Rubio and the Trump administration came under fire from Democrats for the Secretary of State holding as many as four high-profile roles in the second Trump administration. As of today, he currently remains in two of those roles.

He was first confirmed as Secretary of State hours after Trump was inaugurated, a role that Rubio remains in today. 

About a month later, amid a massive reorganization at the U.S. Administration for International Development (USAID), Rubio was named director and held that role until handing it off a few months later.  

Around the same time, Rubio was tapped to be the Acting Archivist of the United States (NARA), a role he stopped serving in earlier this month.

Rubio does still serve as the interim National Security Advisor, a role he has held since May following the departure of Michael Waltz.   

“Theres no way he can do that and do it well, especially since theres such incompetence over at DOD with being secretary of defense and just the hollowing out of the top leadership,” Illinois Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth said of Rubio’s multiple jobs. “Theres no way he can carry all that entire load on his own.”

“I dont know how anybody could do these two big jobs,” Democratic Virginia Sen. Mark Warner added.

When asked about the trend of Trump officials wearing multiple work hats in May, the White House reflected in a comment to Fox News Digital on former President “disaster of a Cabinet.” 

“Democrats cheered on Joe Bidens disaster of a Cabinet as it launched the botched Afghanistan withdrawal, opened the southern border to migrant criminals, weaponized the justice system against political opponents and more,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told Fox News Digital in May. “President Trump has filled his administration with many qualified, talented