By
While some of Donald Trump’s more notable personnel decisions took a long time, he wasted little time in announcing that Fox News contributor Janette Nesheiwat would be his choice for surgeon general: Trump made his choice just two weeks after winning a second term.
While most of the president’s early personnel choices have already been confirmed by the Republican-led Senate, Nesheiwat, a family medicine physician, has waited for months for a confirmation hearing.
This week, the doctor’s wait was supposed to be over: The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee was scheduled to hear directly from Nesheiwat this week. Now, there’s no need for that hearing to proceed.
The president announced by way of his social media platform that Nesheiwat’s nomination is no more — he failed to explain why — adding that he will instead nominate Dr. Casey Means for the position. The Associated Press describes Means as a "wellness influencer with close ties to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr."
Trump's missive went on to claim that his first choice for surgeon general will work at the Department of Health and Human Services in "another capacity."
For advocates of science and public health, the demise of Nesheiwat’s nomination is not exactly discouraging. A HuffPost report from the fall detailed her background and noted the physician’s record as a Trump loyalist with little public health experience — presumably a prerequisite for a surgeon general — who made highly problematic on-air comments about hydroxychloroquine during the pandemic.
Just as notably, Nesheiwat sold dietary supplements, featuring her image on the bottle, which included the highly dubious claim that within a few weeks, “your immune system will still be strengthened.”
Between this and her Fox News role, the physician did not exactly have the kind of professional background one would expect to see in a surgeon general.
Though it’s not yet clear why, exactly, Nesheiwat’s nomination ended, the list of Trump’s personnel failures keeps growing. The collapse of former Rep. Matt Gaetz’s attorney general nomination helped get the ball rolling last fall, and it was soon followed by Chad Chronister’s failed nomination to lead the Drug Enforcement Administration and former Rep. Dave Weldon’s failed nomination to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
More recently, Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York learned that she was no longer Trump’s choice to serve as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and two weeks later, Kathleen Sgamma, who was the president’s choice to run the Bureau of Land Management, withdrew from consideration after the public learned of her criticisms of the Jan. 6 attack.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.