Senior Trump administration official Dr. Oz accused of targeting Armenian-Americans

Dr. Mehmet Oz, a senior-level Trump administration official, is facing accusations of racially targeting Armenian-Americans after posting a social media video tied to a federal healthcare fraud crackdown. 

Oz, the current Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, posted the video on Tuesday, which was filmed in a Los Angeles Armenian neighborhood, and appeared to suggest that businesses could be identified as fraudulent due to having Armenian lettering on their signs. 

Although Oz said he was referring to a former hospice nearby whose owner had been jailed for medical fraud, he instead focused on the Armenian lettering on a nearby bakery, citing it as evidence that the business was connected to the mafia.

“We have learned there's roughly $3.5 billion of fraud taking place here in Los Angeles in hospice and home care. It's run, quite a bit of it, by the way, by the Russian-Armenian mafia. You notice the lettering and language behind me is that of the dialect, and it highlights the fact that this is an organized crime mafia deal,” Oz said as his cameraman zoomed in on the bakery’s sign.

The bakery’s owner, Moses Bislamyan, strongly denied Oz’s claims of fraud, saying he’s “disappointed” that the former reality TV host would baselessly single out his sign and location for its Armenian lettering. Bislamyan told local news affiliate ABC7 that he’s already seen a 30% decline in sales and that he’s now terrified to do business. 

Oz is a Turkish-American with ties to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and has been accused of denying the Armenian Genocide. As a result, Armenian-American voters in Pennsylvania played a key role in defeating him in his tight 2022 U.S. Senate race, during which Oz refused to explicitly recognize the 1915 mass killings of Armenians.

California Governor Gavin Newsom’s press office echoed concerns of ulterior motives, saying it is reviewing reports of Oz making “racially charged claims,” and that it’s taking the allegations seriously “given the historic sensitivities involved.”

Observers note that Oz’s unorthodox investigation style may have been influenced by a recent viral video created by 23-year-old YouTuber Nick Shirley, who was filmed visiting Somali-American-owned daycare centers in Minneapolis, Minnesota, investigating abuse of government funds. That video drew the attention of President Donald Trump, who then accelerated the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity in the city, which ultimately led to the separate shooting deaths of two protesters.

Governor Newsom’s Director of Communications Izzy Gardon cited the parallel in a post to X, writing: "The Trump administration is now targeting the ARMENIAN community in California, comparing them to how they treated the Somalis in Minnesota. Disgusting!" 

Armenian-American lobby groups have been quick to respond. In a letter to Oz, the DC-based Armenian Assembly of America stated that it “unequivocally condemns targeted attacks on ethnic minorities and the Armenian community.” The letter acknowledged the administration’s responsibility to address waste fraud, and abuse but noted that Oz’s “selective targeting” of Armenian-Americans is “deeply troubling” and “inflicts grave injustice on Armenian-Americans who have proudly served this nation and their communities with distinction.”

Executive Director of the Armenian National Committee of America Aram Hamparian concurred, decrying Oz as “painting Armenians with a broad brush, tarring the entire Armenian-American community for the alleged crimes of a few individuals.” He continued: “this sort of ethnic scapegoating against Americans of Armenian heritage is as toxic as it is dangerous.” 

This confrontation comes just weeks before a scheduled trip by Vice-President J.D. Vance to Armenia, adding a geopolitical dimension to the controversy. In the face of the backlash, Oz has doubled-down on his statements, tweeting Wednesday that his organization will continue its work “going after fraudsters."