Oprah Winfrey spent two decades building Doctor Phil and Doctor Oz into household names.
Now they're the two most consequential TV personalities in Washington, DC.
And Doctor Phil responded to Oprah’s insults with two words that caught everyone by surprise.
What Oprah Actually Said
"Everybody has their own path in life, and it has not one thing to do with me, and I don't have one thing to do with them."
That was Oprah Winfrey this week, explaining why she doesn't feel responsible for launching the careers of Dr. Mehmet Oz and Dr. Phil McGraw – two men now serving directly in the Trump administration.
She gave them their breaks because she thought they were useful to her.
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They became useful to America instead.
The problem isn't that Oprah distanced herself from two men who went sideways.
The problem is she distanced herself from two men who chose their country over Hollywood – and framed it as a character flaw.
From Your Living Room to the Situation Room
For twenty-one years, Dr. Phil McGraw sat across from regular Americans – people struggling with addiction, broken marriages, troubled kids – and told them the hard truth nobody else would.
No hedging.
No academic double-talk.
Straight talk, delivered to your face, whether you liked it or not.
That's the same Dr. Phil who embedded with ICE officers in Chicago in January 2025 and filmed the first arrest – a convicted sex offender and internet predator from Thailand.
He did it again in Los Angeles when ICE operations there sparked the left-wing protests CNN spent a week celebrating.
He built Merit Street Media to give Americans unfiltered footage the mainstream press refused to show.
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Trump put him on the Religious Liberty Commission because the man knows how to communicate truth to millions of people, and he proved he'd do it even when it cost him friends.
McGraw's spokesman said he is "eternally grateful" to Oprah and considers her "one of one."
She called his choices a path she wants nothing to do with.
He responded with class.
The Man Now Running Medicare and Medicaid
Dr. Oz was confirmed as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in April 2025 – the agency covering more than 160 million Americans.
He's already cut $50 billion in federal healthcare waste in his first year.
That includes $25 billion from closing a Medicaid funding loophole states had exploited for years, $11 billion from tightening oversight of improper ACA enrollments, and work requirements for able-bodied Medicaid recipients who were sitting home collecting benefits while taxpayers picked up the tab.
He cracked down on Medicaid payments to states covering illegal immigrants.
Oprah thought he was good at explaining colon cancer on television.
Turns out he was also good at fixing a $1.5 trillion program that had been looted for years.
The Real Embarrassment Here
Oprah campaigned for Kamala Harris.
She spoke at the Democrat National Convention.
She's a billionaire who spent decades using her platform to push the Left's agenda – and the men she made famous chose a different direction entirely.
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Dr. Oz told a Senate committee at his confirmation that "great societies protect their most vulnerable."
Then he set about protecting them from the specific people draining those programs dry.
Dr. Phil watched Kamala Harris dodge his repeated interview requests and showed up at Trump's Madison Square Garden rally anyway – not as a formal endorsement, but because he wasn't going to let the Left's preferred candidate run out the clock on accountability.
Oprah made these men stars.
Trump made them consequential.
She can have the credit for the first part.
The country got the better half of the deal.
Sources:
- Brenton Blanchet, "Oprah Winfrey Responds to Criticism for Giving Dr. Oz and Dr. Phil Their Big Breaks," People, August 13, 2026.
- "CMS Policies Under Oz Aim to Cut $50B in Federal Spending," HFMA, September 10, 2025.
- "CMS Under Dr. Oz: 20 Key Actions," Becker's Hospital Review, December 29, 2025.
- "Mehmet Oz Confirmed as CMS Head," Healthcare Brew, April 4, 2025.
- Sarah N. Lynch and Ted Hesson, "TV Host 'Dr. Phil' Films as ICE Targets Migrants in Chicago," Reuters, January 27, 2025.
- "Dr. Phil Appointed to Trump's Religious Liberty Commission," WFAA, May 1, 2025.