Before his election to Congress, Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas) was the official White House physician to former President Donald Trump, and a rear admiral lower half in the US Navy. But a new report confirmed that even though Jackson hasn't held that rank since a 2022 demotion, he's still using it today.
On Thursday, the Washington Post reported that Jackson was demoted to the rank of retired captain after a 2022 investigation by the Pentagon's Office of the Inspector General (OIG) into misconduct allegations. But despite Jackson getting busted down in rank roughly two years ago, he still refers to himself as a "retired US Navy Rear Admiral" on his official congressional website. It's also unclear whether he has communicated his demotion to anyone else, with Trump and other Republicans still addressing him by his former rank in public appearances.
"While it is possible that others will mistakenly refer to him as 'Admiral' in perpetuity, he himself should not make that mistake," Catherine Kuzminski, of the Center for Just National Security, told the Post.
The demotion was the result of the 2021 OIG report investigating Jackson's time in the White House. The report alleged he "made sexual and denigrating statements" to subordinates, drank alcohol on the job and sometimes even performed his official duties as White House physician while on the prescription sleep drug Ambien.
"The substantiated allegations in the [Department of Defense inspector general] investigation of Rear Adm. (lower half) Ronny Jackson are not in keeping with the standards the Navy requires of its leaders and, as such, the secretary of the Navy took administrative action in July 2022," Navy spokesman lieutenant commander Joe Keiley told the Post.
Rolling Stone also reported that Jackson allegedly provided other prescription drugs to unnamed "senior staff" members of the Trump administration, including Ambien, anti-anxiety medication Xanax and Modafinil, which is taken to enhance alertness.
"[Jackson] would come around Air Force One asking Donald Trump’s senior staff if they needed anything," former White House pres secretary Stephanie Grisham said, according to Rolling Stone. "This included Provigil and Ambien, and he would hand them out, typically in the form of packets with two or three pills in them. When this happened on Air Force One, a nurse would be trailing him, writing down who got what."
Prior to his congressional career, Jackson made headlines for his glowing assessment of Trump, saying that he would live to be "200 years old" if he cut out fast food from his diet. He also said the former president passed a cognitive test with flying colors, and once referred to him as the "MAGA king." His constant praise of Trump has resulted in the ex-president heaping praise on Jackson in return, once saying at a rally that "he loved looking at my body, it was so strong."
"He said I’m the healthiest president that’s ever lived," Trump said of Jackson at the 2022 Conservative Political Action Conference. "I said, I like this guy."
Jackson retired after 24 years of service under his O-7 rear admiral lower half pay grade in 2019, though with his demotion, he's now receiving pension for O-6 pay grade, which is roughly $15,000 less per year. Also the rank of rear admiral lower half is a rank below that of rear admiral, which is how Jackson still refers to himself.
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