President Donald Trump has named his longtime friend and ally Pastor Darrell Scott as a tobacco health adviser at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), even though he has no recorded experience in public health or tobacco control policy.
Scott is senior pastor of New Spirit Revival Center Ministries Inc. in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, and CEO of WCCD Radio 1000. He also also served as a board member of the National Diversity Coalition for Trump before being named a tobacco health adviser at the CDC.
“I am pleased to announce that Pastor Darrell Scott, a longtime friend, respected Faith Leader, and tireless Advocate for America’s Underserved Communities, will be serving my Administration and me as an Advisor for tobacco health issues on the Advisory Committee to the Director (ACD) in the CDC,” President Trump announced on Truth Social Tuesday.
Even though traditional cigarette smoking rates have dropped to a historic low of about 9.9% among adults, according to the CDC, tobacco use remains the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S. More than 480,000 people die each year from smoking.
The CDC’s 14-year ad campaign, called “Tips From Former Smokers,” went dark last year as tobacco companies gave millions of dollars to political organizations linked to the Trump administration, The New York Times reported in July.
Last month, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized the marketing of 11 new nicotine pouch products through its premarket tobacco product application pathway.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) dismantled several key groups last year that advocates say had helped lower smoking rates in the U.S. for decades.
Dr. Tom Frieden, who led the CDC under President Barack Obama, contends that the cuts are a “gift to Big Tobacco.”
“The only winner here is the tobacco industry and cancer cells,” Frieden, president and chief executive of Resolve to Save Lives, a global health initiative, told NBC News in 2025.
President Trump said Scott understands the toll tobacco use takes on American families, particularly among those “overlooked and underserved.”
“For far too long, tobacco-related disease has taken an enormous toll on American Families, including Communities that have too often been overlooked and underserved. Pastor Scott understands these Communities, and the challenges they face, and he knows how to bring people together to get RESULTS,” Trump said.
“Delivering on a Campaign promise, his work will help ensure that we take a serious look at how we can better protect Americans from dangerous tobacco products, while supporting solutions to reduce harm and SAVE LIVES,” he added. “Pastor Darrell Scott has been with us from the very beginning. He is a GREAT LEADER with a tremendous heart for the people of our Country.”
Scott’s appointment comes weeks after the U.S. Senate confirmed Dr. Erica Schwartz as the new CDC director. The agency had gone without a permanent director for nearly a year after its last director was fired amid a dispute with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over vaccine policy.
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