THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

Or continue the fight with some of the second string termites already working to destroy the healthcare structure in this country. That is the dilemma facing Cheeto Mussolini as he plays golf while deciding who will replace Tom 'Dr Death' Price at HHS.

The White House had no comment on Saturday, but the two most frequently mentioned candidates to succeed Mr. Price are two officials who already work in the department: Seema Verma, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and Scott Gottlieb, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration. Both have previously been vetted by the White House, nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate to their current jobs within recent months, a significant selling point.

Other names have been floated as well, including David Shulkin, the secretary of veterans affairs and a favorite of the president’s, but he has been criticized for a European trip with his wife that mixed business and sightseeing and was partially financed by taxpayers. Some reports have floated former Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, an assistant secretary of health and human services under President George W. Bush. But he was a caustic critic of Mr. Trump during his own brief campaign for the White House that ended in late 2015 after he called the future president a “narcissist” and “egomaniacal madman.”

Mr. Trump may not necessarily fill the post quickly. He has left the Department of Homeland Security in the hands of an acting secretary since John F. Kelly left in July to become White House chief of staff. The president appears to be in no rush despite a series of hurricanes and a roiling immigration debate, issues managed by the department. He said on Friday that he would make a decision “probably within a month.”

If Mr. Trump picks Ms. Verma to succeed Mr. Price at the Department of Health and Human Services, it would be taken as a sign among many that he wants to continue vigorous opposition to the Affordable Care Act, with the government doing the minimum required by the law to implement its provisions. Ms. Verma, an ally of Vice President Mike Pence, worked closely this year with Republicans in Congress on their proposals to undo the law and to cut Medicaid, the program for more than 70 million low-income people.

Still, some progressives have interpreted her work under the health care law in Indiana, where Mr. Pence was governor, to mean that while she opposed the Affordable Care Act, she was committed to finding ways to enforce it if it remained on the books.

Mr. Gottlieb has more experience in Washington and was seen at the time of his appointment as the more moderate of candidates being considered. In his first months at the F.D.A., he has deftly balanced the concerns of patients and pharmaceutical companies, while taking steps to combat the opioid epidemic and speed access to lower-cost generic drugs. His nomination would be seen as a signal that the president might want to take a different approach to the health care debate.

With his short attention span, it may be a tough row to hoe getting Cheeto to continue the fight. Either way the termites will continue their destruction of another agency of the federal government that the Evil Koch Brothers hate.