US Vice President JD Vance, from left, Pam Bondi, US attorney general, Chris Wright, US energy secretary, Janette Nesheiwat, US surgeon general nominee for US President Donald Trump, and Lee Zeldin, administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), during a cupboard meeting on the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025.
Al Drago | Bloomberg | Getty Images
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he’s withdrawing his nomination of former Fox News medical contributor Dr. Janette Nesheiwat as U.S. surgeon general, a move that followed questions on her medical education and criticism by conservative gadfly Laura Loomer.
Trump, in a social media post, said he would nominate Dr. Casey Means for surgeon general.
The president said Nesheiwat will work on the Department of Health and Human Services with Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “in one other capability.”
Trump announced that Nesheiwat was not his nominee for surgeon general a day before she was set to look for her confirmation hearing on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
She is the sister-in-law of Trump’s former national security advisor Mike Waltz.
Trump removed Waltz from his post Thursday and said he was nominating him to turn out to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
Trump fired several National Security Council officials in early April after Loomer said she was unhappy with them. Waltz had defended the officials during a gathering within the Oval Office with Trump that Loomer attended.
Freelance author Anthony Clark first raised questions on Nesheiwat’s education claims in a post on Substack.
CBS News, citing records it reviewed, last week reported that Nesheiwat, who had said she had a level from the University of Arkansas School of Medicine, actually earned her medical degree from the American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine, positioned in St. Maarten.
“A spokesperson for the University of Arkansas confirmed to CBS News she accomplished her residency through its family medicine program in Fayetteville, Arkansas, but didn’t obtain her medical degree there,” the network reported.
On Sunday, Loomer, in a post on X, wrote, “We actually need a brand new nominee for US Surgeon General.”
Loomer criticized Nesheiwat for having previously said that “vaccine hesitancy is a Global health threat,” and for using her position at Fox News to advertise the Covid-19 vaccine.
“I genuinely wish we had a special nominee that was more aligned with personal liberties,” Loomer wrote.
Nesheiwat’s nomination is the second high-ranking health official pick of Trump’s to be withdrawn this yr.
The nomination of former Florida Rep. Dave Weldon to move the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was yanked in March.
