Trump Cabinet pick Dr. Janette Nesheiwat faces MAGA fury after COVID videos resurface

Donald Trump’s nominee for Surgeon General is facing backlash from some of his fiercest MAGA supporters for supporting some strict COVID restrictions and mask mandates.

Past videos from Fox News contributor Dr. Janette Nesheiwat’s views on the COVID pandemic have recently resurfaced and sparked outrage.

The controversy stems from Trump’s choice for Drug Enforcement Administrator, Florida Sheriff Chad Chronister, withdrew his name will be withdrawn from consideration on Tuesday.

And former Rep. Matt Gaetz stunningly left attorney general consideration after being plagued by several explicit sex scandals and an ethics investigation into the House of Representatives.

Now Trump’s Pentagon pick, Pete Hegseth, is struggling to gain support after questions about his drinking habits and past sexual exploits came to light.

Nesheiwat, medical director of CityMD in New York, has spoken regularly about the coronavirus pandemic to give her advice on how citizens should behave.

Trump supporters posted a new message video on social media from Nesheiwat participating in the TikTok trend of dancing nurses trying to educate the public on how to protect themselves during the 2020 pandemic.

‘Dr. Surgeon General nominee Janette Nesheiwat was involved in the dumb TikTok trend that emerged during the Covid pandemic,’ wrote MAGA supporter and grassroots organizer for Trump Scarlett Johnson. “The trend involved doctors and nurses performing annoying dance routines while telling us to mask up and ‘shelter in place.’

Other videos of Nesheiwat’s advice on Fox News raised questions about her medical expertise as more Americans began to question the validity of the recommendations for the coronavirus pandemic.

‘Dr. Janette Nesheiwat supported masking children at school. DEALBREAKER,” podcast host Liz Wheeler wrote on social media when the choice was announced.

Wheeler’s video showed Nesheiwat endorsing mask mandates for children to combat the Delta variant of the virus and get them back in schools.

MAGA activists and Republican Thomas Massie successfully pressured Trump’s DEA pick Chad Chronister for ordering the arrest of a pastor for holding services during the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020.

“The next time politicians lose their ever-loving spirit, he can redeem himself by following the Constitution,” Massie wrote on X on Tuesday.

It remains to be seen if Nesheiwat can survive the same pressure if MAGA targets her next.

In another video making the rounds on social media, Nesheiwat praised Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg for censoring and banning so-called “misinformation” about vaccines on Facebook and Instagram.

“Vaccines save lives and I’m so excited and I thank and commend Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg for their action because this affects everyone,” she said during a Fox Business panel on the issue.

Nesheiwat expressed her support for other social media platforms to follow Zuckerberg’s lead and also censor vaccine skeptics.

Other videos showed Nesheiwat encouraging Americans to get their COVID-19 vaccination, reiterating that it was a “safe and effective” vaccine.

MAGA podcasters Emily Wilson and Arynne Wexler of the show UnFollowed also expressed their disappointment with the choice.

“I don’t understand this choice at all,” Wexler said. ‘Not at all. … This is not MAGA. This woman, I need someone to explain what’s happening here.’

‘I don’t know where this came from. I’ve never heard of this woman before,” Wilson said. “The fact that she’s a pro-Covid person, I couldn’t think of a worst person.”

Nesheiwat also promoted the idea of ​​making sure children got their COVID-19 vaccines.

“I think this is important,” she said on Fox News, warning of schoolchildren contracting and spreading the disease.

“In general, the risk of serious complications, the risk of death for children is extremely low, but they can still get sick, they can still spread the infection and they can still die from COVID.

It appears Nesheiwat became more skeptical of the federal government’s guidance on vaccines during the coronavirus pandemic.

She criticized the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for profiting from unnecessary childhood vaccines in 2022.

“There’s no good reason to have a vaccine that can’t stop the disease, can’t stop transmission as planned,” she said during an appearance on then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s show.

Surgeon General is a position that requires Senate confirmation, so her previous advice could pose a problem for her confirmation hearings.

However, Nesheiwat seemed to change his tune in recent years.

Nesheiwat also showed a video of her instructing people on the proper way to wear a mask and even endorsing “double masking” to ensure people were safe.

“She is a terrible choice, I pray this doesn’t continue and I will continue to attack her if pushed and you know why he would do this? She’s the swamp!’ Wexler said.

“She’s clearly a leftist and should be damn well reconsidered,” Wilson said, calling it the “most disturbing thing I’ve ever seen” from Team Trump since he won the election.

Others were angrier, sharing videos of Nesheiwat endorsing the concept of wearing masks outdoors and around people.

“More left-wing madness from Trump’s pick for Surgeon General, Janette Nesheiwat, who promoted masking children. He should withdraw this nomination,” wrote Don Keith, the host of the show “The Real Beef With Don Keith.” wrote on X.

Nesheiwat’s sister, Julia Nesheiwat, is now married to U.S. Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.), whom Trump picked as national security adviser.

But her Fox News segments that went viral on social media sent MAGA supporters into an uproar.

“Even if she has now changed her mind about these medically and scientifically bad ideas, the fact that she openly supported them all to the lay public demonstrates a level of incompetence or corruption that should NEVER be rewarded,” wrote Dr. Dan Levy on X.

The Trump transition team has responded to concerns from MAGA activists and members of Congress about some of their potential nominees.