The White House is vouching for President Donald Trump’s health—using a disgraced doctor who gave up his full medical license and was stripped of his military rank after a series of scandals.
It issued a statement in the name of Ronny Jackson—and not that of the actual White House physician. Jackson is now a MAGA loyalist member of the House of Representatives.
Jackson was Trump’s first White House physician, who claimed the president could “live to 200.” When Trump nominated Jackson to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs he was forced to withdraw over allegations he handed out prescription drugs “like candy,” earning him the moniker “Candyman.” He was later stripped of his rank as a rear admiral by the Navy.
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Jackson, 58, also let his full medical license expire in Virginia, where he had practiced, in 2020, allowing him to practice only in emergency circumstances.
Jackson has, however, remained a stalwart supporter of the president and bandaged Trump’s ear after he was shot in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July last year after facing allegations that he drank on the job and created a hostile work environment, especially for female colleagues.
But he has now been deployed to help in Trump’s health crisis. The White House dramatically admitted in July that he had “chronic veinous insufficiency” after questions about his severely swollen ankles. Questions have also been raised over his gait, as he veered severely from side to side during his summit with Russian strongman Vladimir Putin, and about why both his hands are heavily bruised.
On Tuesday the administration turned to a man who cannot legally practice medicine except in emergency circumstances for a clean bill of health.
“As President Trump’s former personal physician, former Physician to the President, and White House physician for 14 years across three administrations, I can tell you unequivocally: President Donald J. Trump is the healthiest president this nation has ever seen,” Jackson said in a statement sent via the White House. “I continue to consult with his current physician and medical team at the White House and still spend significant time with the President. He is mentally and physically sharper than ever before.”
His use of the verb “consult” raises questions about whether he has accessed medical information.
The statement was sent when the Daily Beast reached out for comment on Trump’s tit-for-tat war of words with Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, with both men calling each other unhealthy—the result of the president’s threats to send the National Guard into Chicago.
A White House spokesperson, Liz Huston, initially replied and said the 79-year-old is the “most active and transparent president in American history.”
She then took a shot at the alleged cover-up of former President Joe Biden’s mental decline by his close circle. “Joe Biden’s handlers covered up his mental decline for four years while they did everything in their power to destroy America,” she said.
The White House followed up with Jackson’s comments.
The White House has offered vanishingly little actual information on Trump’s health. It claimed—to widespread ridicule—that Trump weighed 224 pounds and was 6 foot 2 at his last physical in April.
But it suddenly admitted in July that he has been diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency, a condition that occurs when leg vein valves fail, causing blood to pool—only after dramatic pictures of his swollen ankles raised questions over his health.
In the weeks since he has been dogged by pictures of his swollen ankles and other photographs showing severe bruising on his hands.
The first were on his right hand, which the White House claimed was due to his use of aspirin and his volume of handshaking. But that explanation came under the microscope this weekend with the appearance of bruising on his left hand. He also displayed his wobbly walk again at a weekend golf outing.
Trump attempted to cover the purple mark during his Oval Office appearance on Monday, while the White House cropped official photos to remove his cankles. He even struggles to see people who are right in front of him.
Jackson’s medical career came crashing down in the wake of his nomination to run the Department of Veterans Affairs in 2018.
Detailed allegations regarding his behavior in the Navy and at the White House, ranging from hostility to co-workers and subordinates, alcohol use on the job, and over-prescription of medications, killed his bid.
These alleged indiscretions were listed in a two-page document supported by 23 of his colleagues. Allegations ranged from improperly prescribing opioids to a staff member to crashing a government vehicle while intoxicated.
Pete Souza, the former White House photographer during Obama’s administration, was friends with Jackson, but the relationship soured and he later accused him of being “hungover while the on-duty doctor for the President of the United States.”
Then-Democratic Sen. Jon Tester, at the time the ranking member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, was the person who revealed that Jackson was dubbed “the Candyman.”
CNN reported in April 2018 that, three years prior, while on an overseas trip with President Barack Obama, an intoxicated Jackson banged on the hotel room door of a female employee loudly enough to prompt Secret Service agents to stop him before he woke the president. Citing two sources, CNN reported that the employee was “uncomfortable” with Jackson’s behavior.
“The allegations against me are completely false and fabricated,” Jackson said at the time, before withdrawing his nomination.
“He’s got this beautiful record, unblemished,” Trump said afterward on Fox & Friends, trying to defend his man.
Controversies followed Jackson into Congress after he was elected in 2020. A 2021 Pentagon inspector general report concluded he made “sexual and denigrating” comments toward a female subordinate and abused prescription sleep medication while on duty.
After he retired, he was demoted by the Navy in 2022 from rear admiral to captain, though he continued to call himself an admiral, according to The Washington Post. The exceptionally rare move to degrade him meant that he was stripped of his star and flag officer status—a symbol of extreme disapproval by the military.
In July 2023, he was detained at a Texas rodeo after clashing with deputies.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House and Jackson’s office for comment.
