Donald Trump's Medicare Pick, Dr. Oz Is Tied To One Of Pennsylvania’s Wealthiest Families

Forbes

Mehmet Oz first drew support from Trump when he ran for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania–a race he lost. Here’s how the talk-show-famous doctor is connected to a Pennsylvania family with a multi-billion dollar business.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattdurot/2024/11/19/newly-nominated-trump-medicare-chief-dr-oz-is-tied-to-one-of-pennsylvanias-wealthiest-families/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Today on Forbes, newly nominated Trump Medicare chief Dr. Oz is tied to one of

00:06Pennsylvania's wealthiest families. Last Tuesday, Trump nominated Mehmet Oz to run

00:13the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The post will require

00:17confirmation by the US Senate. In announcing Oz as his pick, Trump said,

00:22quote, Dr. Oz will work closely with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to take on the

00:27illness industrial complex and all the horrible chronic diseases left in its

00:30wake. Oz is known nationally as the retired

00:34physician turned television personality who became famous largely thanks to his

00:39ties to Oprah Winfrey. The talk show host regularly featured him as a guest on her

00:44Oprah show, and she co-produced The Dr. Oz Show, which won 10 daytime Emmys over

00:49a 12-year run that ended in early 2022. When he pulled out to focus on running

00:54as a Republican for a U.S. Senate seat in Pennsylvania, a race he ended up

00:58losing to Democratic candidate John Fetterman. The man Oz defeated in the

01:03Republican primary for the Senate in 2022, the former CEO of hedge fund

01:07Bridgewater Associates, Dave McCormick, now appears to be headed to the Senate

01:12alongside Fetterman after narrowly defeating Democratic incumbent Bob Casey

01:16earlier this month. Oz has made a fortune from TV, $9.3 million in

01:23pre-tax earnings in 2021 alone, according to a government financial

01:26disclosure he filed while running for the Senate seat. He also raked in just

01:31under $1 million in 2021 for speeches and appearances for the likes of Warner

01:36Brothers and the American Pistachio Growers Association, as well as from

01:40royalties for a medical device he patented with colleagues at Columbia

01:44University, where he was a professor of surgery. But much of Oz's fortune, not to

01:50mention his ties to Pennsylvania, come from a different source, his wife's

01:54wealthy family. Her grandfather co-founded Asplund Tree Expert with his

02:00two brothers in 1928. With $5.4 billion in 2022 revenue, Asplund ranked as the

02:07109th biggest private company in America on Forbes' 2023 list and the

02:12eighth largest in Pennsylvania, with more than 37,000 employees. The 95-year-

02:18old company, which trims trees for electric utilities, municipalities, and

02:22others, is run by the third generation of Asplunds and owned by nearly 200

02:27family members, who are collectively worth at least $3 billion. This all

02:33probably helps explain why the celebrity doctor was able to fund his Senate

02:37campaign with $26.8 million of personal loans, the sort of money that most

02:42wouldn't consider throwing away unless they knew they had an especially large

02:46stash as backup. Oz, who is the son of Turkish immigrants and also has

02:51Turkish citizenship, got his M.D. and M.B.A. at the University of Pennsylvania

02:56in 1986 and lived for years in New Jersey. He only registered to vote in

03:01Pennsylvania in December 2020, using his in-laws' address. A spokesperson for

03:07Asplund Tree Expert told Forbes in 2022 that the company was, quote,

03:12not in any way involved in or invested in Dr. Oz's campaign or any other

03:16political campaign, adding that, quote,

03:24According to Federal Election Commission records, at least 18 members

03:28of the Asplund clan contributed a total of $62,200 to Oz's Senate campaign on

03:34behalf of themselves and their spouses. The limit for individual contributions

03:38is $2,900.

03:41Forbes began tracking the tree-trimming family and the unusual way they have

03:45gotten and stayed rich more than a quarter of a century ago. For full

03:51coverage and to see the October 16, 1995 profile of the Asplund family,

03:56written by the current editor of Forbes, Randall Lane, check out Matt

04:00Durow's piece on Forbes.com. This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes. Thanks for

04:07tuning in.

Category

Transcript

Recommended