The big happy MAGA family is showing signs of strain. Damn. What could account for that? The latest schism in Trump world is that surgeon general nominee Janette Nesheiwat has now been replaced with another nominee. She is going the way of her brother-in-law, Mike Waltz. Whether it’s a coincidence that Nesheiwat is going because she’s Waltz’s relative or if she happens to be persona non grata for other reasons is up for debate. But here is Trump’s official edict, via social media, naturally.
Trump just fired his Surgeon General nominee now. pic.twitter.com/7VVsDbZEJg
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) May 7, 2025
Somebody did something to piss off the wrong people and it looks like the wrong person these days is Laura Loomer. Seriously. ABC News is running a story that this is Loomer’s doing.
The news comes as right-wing activist Laura Loomer called on the president to pick a new nominee after it came to light that Nesheiwat received her medical degree from American University of the Caribbean instead of the University of Arkansas. Loomer also criticized Nesheiwat for being pro-vaccine.
Initially, she promoted the COVID-19 vaccine, calling it “a gift from God” in a 2021 opinion piece for Fox News, but a year later, she opposed the vaccine mandates for children during an appearance on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show despite medical studies showing that the COVID-19 vaccine can greatly reduce the chance for severe symptoms, hospitalization and death from the virus for patients of all ages.
Trump praised Nesheiwat during his November announcement, calling her a “fierce advocate and strong communicator for preventive medicine and public health.”
Nesheiwat is the sister-in-law of former national security adviser Mike Waltz, who was removed from his post last week and nominated to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
Waltz came under fire after it was revealed he was part of a Signal group chat with national security team members, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in which they discussed impending military plans and inadvertently invited The Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg to the chat.
Loomer also called for Waltz to be fired after the scandal.
She has become a more prominent figure in Trump’s inner circle and made recommendations to Trump on whom to fire, sources told ABC News last month.
“She makes recommendations of things and people, and sometimes I listen to those recommendations, like I do with everybody,” Trump said last month. “I listen to everybody, and then I make a decision. But I saw her yesterday. She was at the ceremony, and she is — she’ll always have something to say, usually very constructive.”
We have a far-right wing lunatic making key staffing decisions and deciding whose relatives stay and whose relatives go. What could possibly go wrong? And remember the heat that JFK caught for putting one relative, Bobby, in as attorney general? We’ve come a long way.
