The Trump administration has officially fired Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director Susan Monarez, just hours after she refused to resign voluntarily. A successor is expected to be named soon.
The move came just hours after Monarez’s legal team said she still held the position, emphasizing that, as a presidential appointee confirmed by the Senate, only Trump himself had the authority to remove her. Monarez said she was resisting being ousted by the nation’s top health official, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., for political reasons after about a month in office. Her lawyers Mark Zaid and Abbe Lowell said: “When CDC Director Susan Monarez refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts, she chose protecting the public over serving a political agenda. For that, she has been targeted. Dr. Monarez has neither resigned nor received notification from the White House that she has been fired, and as a person of integrity and devoted to science, she will not resign.”
Tensions between Monarez and Secretary Kennedy had been escalating, particularly over vaccine policy. The New York Times reported that the two clashed repeatedly, with Kennedy—an outspoken vaccine skeptic—pushing to overhaul U.S. immunization strategy. Monarez, a veteran government scientist with a doctorate in microbiology and immunology, was sworn in on July 31. She became the first CDC director to undergo Senate confirmation, a new requirement established during the pandemic.
The White House fired back shortly thereafter, formally terminating Monarez. White House spokesman Kush Desai said: “As her attorney’s statement makes abundantly clear, Susan Monarez is not aligned with the President’s agenda of Making America Healthy Again. Since Susan Monarez refused to resign despite informing HHS leadership of her intent to do so, the White House has terminated Monarez from her position with the CDC.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt also told reporters that “this is the president’s decision, and he has every right to make it,” adding that Trump “has the authority to remove officials who are not aligned with his mission.”
The dispute underscores growing turmoil inside the CDC. On Wednesday, at least four senior health officials announced their resignations following the CDC’s declaration on social media that Monarez was “no longer” the agency’s director — those officials included Dr. Debra Houry, the chief medical officer; Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases; Dr. Daniel Jernigan, the director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases; and Dr. Jen Layden, director of the Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance and Technology.
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