Staff Reports
Donald Trump’s recent nomination for Surgeon General has raised a few eyebrows, and not in a good way. Dr. Janette Nesheiwat seems set to become the poster child for everything conservatives fought against during the last election cycle. In an ironic twist, it appears Trump may have taken a long walk off a short cliff with this one, considering her track record of supporting lockdowns, social media censorship, and emboldening the very things that got the right riled up in the first place.
To start with, Nesheiwat’s affinity for praising social media companies like Facebook for censoring any anti-vaccine sentiment raises significant questions. This is the last thing conservatives want from a health leader—a promoter of draconian measures that stifle free speech under the guise of public health. Ironically, it seems Trump is aiming to keep the swamp creatures at bay by dragging in a nominee who embodies them instead. The sheer bafflement over this pick only intensifies when one considers her public stance on mask mandates, even suggesting that wearing a mask outdoors could somehow limit the spread of COVID, regardless of whether someone is alone in an open space.
What’s particularly galling is that the very same crowd that rallied behind Trump’s “America First” agenda now faces the reality of a nominee who has endorsed every one of Dr. Fauci’s policies, locking down children and forcing masks on them like they’re volunteers in a dystopian movie. Instead of moving forward post-election, Trump risks stepping backward with nominations that could be more at home in a Biden cabinet. This isn’t merely a faux pas; it’s a significant miscalculation that could alienate his base even further.
Dr. Nesheiwat appears to face a double whammy on the ideological front, extending beyond pandemic management into gender discussions. Her notion that babies are “assigned” gender at birth certainly showcases a disconnect from traditional values. Conservative Americans value the belief that gender is not some whimsical designation dictated by societal norms but rather a biological certainty. When she starts feeding the narrative that adolescent suicide rates among transgender youth are drastically elevated compared to their cisgender peers, one can’t help but wonder what kind of data she’s pulling from. The story she tells sounds more like an attempt to bolster a social agenda than a factual examination of public health, which is precisely what many Americans dread from their leaders.
I've been against Trump's Surgeon General pick from the beginning. She's basically a stupid leftist Democrat.
She and the Labor Sec pick need to be thrown WAY under the bus.https://t.co/abidvNXdfG
— Rhett Bise 🍢🍢 (@herotransform8n) December 11, 2024
Is it too late for Trump to start fresh with his Surgeon General nomination? It certainly feels like every day that goes by with Dr. Nesheiwat still in the running will only lead to further disappointment among conservatives. In a political atmosphere rife with careful optics post-election, this nomination might as well serve as a self-sabotaging headline: Trump’s winning coalition now looking at a nominee who’s the antithesis of everything they voted against.
The question looms large: will Trump heed the clarion call of his supporters to reconsider this pick? If anything can be learned from the past couple of years in American politics, it’s that fighting fire with fiery progressive endorsements won’t win back the base. Whether or not Nesheiwat remains a contender for the job, one thing’s for sure—everyone will be keeping a close eye on this unfolding drama, particularly conservatives who yearn for genuine leadership instead of the muddled messaging of the pre-Trump era.
