President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he is withdrawing his nomination of former Fox News medical contributor Dr. Janette Nesheiwat as U.S. surgeon general, a move that followed questions about 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 at the Department of Health and Human Services with Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “in another capacity.”
Trump announced that Nesheiwat was no longer his nominee for surgeon general a day before she was set to appear for her confirmation hearing at 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 become 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 meeting in the Oval Office with Trump that Loomer attended.
Freelance writer Anthony Clark first raised questions about 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 degree from the University of Arkansas School of Medicine, actually earned her medical degree from the American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine, located in St. Maarten.
“A spokesperson for the University of Arkansas confirmed to CBS News she completed her residency through its family medicine program in Fayetteville, Arkansas, but did not obtain her medical degree there,” the network reported.
On Sunday, Loomer, in a post on X, wrote, “We really need a 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 promote the Covid-19 vaccine.
“I genuinely wish we had a different 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Nesheiwat’s nomination is the second high-ranking health official pick of Trump’s to be withdrawn this year.
The nomination of former Florida Rep. Dave Weldon to head the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was yanked in March.