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President Donald Trump withdrew two nominations this week: that of a Fox News medical contributor for the country’s top doctor and a Capitol insurrection supporter for the top prosecutor in Washington, D.C. Unfortunately, he replaced them with people who are insane in their own special ways. The picks need to be confirmed by the Senate, but this is pretty terrifying stuff.
Trump chose wellness influencer Casey Means for Surgeon General, and Fox News host and former prosecutor Jeanine Pirro to be U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. One Fox host in the cabinet is already one Fox host too many, and Pete Hegseth isn’t exactly covering himself in glory right now!
This is how we got here.
On Thursday morning, Fox News medical contributor Janette Nesheiwat was set to have her confirmation hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Trump had nominated Nesheiwat, a medical director for a New York urgent care company and the sister-in-law of former national security adviser Mike Waltz, back in November.
But far-right activist Laura Loomer had been trash-talking Nesheiwat recently, writing on Twitter this week that we can’t have as Surgeon General “a pro-COVID vaccine nepo appointee who is currently embroiled in a medical malpractice case and who didn’t go to medical school in the US.” (Apparently, Nesheiwat claimed her degree was from the University of Arkansas School of Medicine, when in actuality it was from American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine in St. Maarten.)
And, wouldn’t you know it, Trump announced on Truth Social Wednesday afternoon that he was nominating Means. He concluded his post by saying that Nesheiwat would work “in another capacity at HHS.”
While Means did go to medical school, she did not finish her residency and isn’t a practicing physician. Instead, the Associated Press notes, “she founded a health tech company, Levels, that helps users track blood sugar and other metrics. She also makes money from dietary supplements, creams, teas and other products sponsored on her social media accounts.” So while she promotes “lifestyle” changes to improve health and rails against food and pharma companies, she’s more than happy to take people’s money directly.
Means and her brother Calley served as advisors to the failed presidential campaign of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. She has not been as outspoken on vaccines as RFK, but she does say on her website that she supports more safety investigations and wants to make it easier for patients to sue drugmakers in the event of vaccine injuries. Don’t love that.
RFK is now Health Secretary and Trump told reporters Thursday that he chose Means despite her not being a practicing doctor because the brain worm survivor likes her. “Because Bobby thought she was fantastic … I don’t know her.” How nice for all of us!
Trump announced Pirro on Thursday after saying that he was rescinding the nomination of Ed Martin, who is currently serving as D.C.’s interim top prosecutor. Martin has praised January 6 rioters, made antisemitic statements, and has appeared on Russian state TV more than 150 times. This comical rap sheet was finally enough to lose support among top Senate Republicans, including Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who is up for reelection next year.
Pirro served as a county judge and Westchester County district attorney in the ’90s, meaning she does have courtroom experience, unlike Martin. But she’s no stranger to controversy. She joined Fox in 2006 and the network reportedly suspended her in 2019 after she questioned whether Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) could be loyal to the Constitution as a Muslim.
She has supported Trump from the beginning, including by regurgitating election denialism about voting machines after he lost in 2020. Dominion Voting Systems named Pirro as a defendant in a blockbuster defamation case against Fox, which the company settled for nearly $800 billion. Smartmatic USA has also sued the network and named Pirro in the case.
Tillis, however, said on Twitter Thursday afternoon that he supports Pirro??? He called her a “great choice.”
… First GOP Senator I’ve seen reacting to the Pirro appointment is Thom Tillis. He’s all for it!
— David S. Bernstein (@dbernstein.bsky.social) 2025-05-08T23:37:35.700Z
Nominees only need a simple majority in the Senate to get confirmed. Republicans have 53 Senate seats to Democrats’ 47, but Vice President JD Vance can vote to break any ties. That means at least four GOP Senators would have to break ranks to block these clowns.
Please, dear god, let there be four.
Trump-related barf:
- More than a dozen federal judges who’ve ruled against Trump have received pizzas delivered to their homes, a tactic law enforcement says is meant to convey that people know where they live. Many of the deliveries have used the name of a judge’s son who was murdered in 2020. [Reuters/Washington Post]
- The administration deported two more U.S. citizen children with their mother this week. [Dallas Morning News]
- Headline: “US to begin immediate removal of up to 1,000 trans military members” [The Guardian]
- The Trump administration fired Cameron Hamilton, the acting head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, an agency that Trump wants to disband, one day after Hamilton said during a Congressional hearing that FEMA should not be eliminated. [New York Times]
- Trump’s media company is offering very normal movies, such as a “documentary” about the “lizard people” conspiracy theory. [Talking Points Memo]
Non-Trump barf:
- Former President Joe Biden said in new interviews that dropping out of the race earlier wouldn’t have mattered and that he still thinks he would have beaten Trump. OK, Grandpa, let’s get you to bed. [BBC/ABC News]
- Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) is trying to block the state Republican party from endorsing failed presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy to succeed him. To be clear, this barf is directed at the state GOP, not DeWine. [NBC News]
- South Carolina appears to have botched a firing-squad execution of Mikal Mahdi last month. Autopsy records suggest that the shooters missed the target area on Mahdi’s heart, causing him to suffer a prolonged death. [The Guardian]
This has been your weekly Barf Bag, thanks for reading!
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