When Trump was President, he nominated Dr. Ronny Jackson, his Navy White House doctor and chief of the White House Medical Unit, to be the Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs. The Senate’s responsibility was to determine if Dr. Jackson should get the job.
As the chair of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, Senator Jon Tester was approached by whistleblowers who alleged that Dr. Jackson was dispensing controlled substances in an unprofessional manner. Taking his responsibilities seriously, Senator Tester publicly reported that he had received the allegations. Not the least of the allegations was that Dr. Jackson’s nickname among White House staffers was “The Candy Man,” based on Dr. Jackson’s lax behavior with regard to controlled substances.
A petulent President Trump was angered by the fact that the allegations were being taken seriously by members of the Senate, and took revenge on Senator Tester. That revenge included making several trips to Montana when Senator Tester was running for re-election and denigrating Senator Tester at rallies in the state.
Senator Tester “stuck to his guns” and did not kowtow to President Trump, at the risk of losing his Montana election. In the uproar that followed, President Trump withdrew his nomination of Dr. Jackson. But President Trump never got over being embarrased by Senator Tester’s doing his job to vet the presidental nominee.
Dr. Jackson’s employer, the Department of Defense, took the allegations seriously, too. In 2018, during President Trump’s term in office, the Department of Defense (DoD) Inspector General launched an investigaton of White House medical and prescription practices.
In January 2024, the DoD Inspector General released a report on its investigation entitled Evaluation of the DoD Internal Controls Related to Patient Eligibility and Pharmaceutical Management Within the National Capital Region Executive Medicine Services. The DoD Inspector General found that the concerns about Dr. Jackson’s management of the White House Medical Unit expressed by Senator Tester were well founded. Some of those findings are as follows:
“all phases of the White House Medical Unit’s pharmacy operations had severe and systemic problems due to the unit’s reliance on ineffective internal controls to ensure compliance with pharmacy safety standards. In addition, the Military Health System senior leaders did not oversee the White House Medical Unit’s pharmacy operations.”
“We found that the White House Medical Unit provided a wide range of health care and pharmaceutical services to ineligible White House staff in violation of Federal law and regulation and DoD policy. Additionally, the White House Medical Unit dispensed prescription medications, including controlled substances, to ineligible White House staff.”
“Multiple former White House Medical Unit medical providers stated that they requested an early departure from the unit due to the unit’s practices.”
So, Senator Tester was correct in airing the allegations during Dr. Jackson’s senate confirmation process for VA Secretary and President Trump was wrong in taking revenge on Senator Tester. Dr. Jackson was shown by the evidence to be an incompetent lawbreaker. Senator Tester’s brave actions were shown to be another of his heroic steps to “drain the swamp” created by Trump in Washington DC.
But that’s not the end of the story. In a wonderful example of karmaic triumph of truth over lies, the Navy demoted Ronny Jackson after the probe into his White House behavior. He is now a retired captain instead of a retired admiral. The demotion “carries significant financial burden in addition to the social stigma of stripped rank in military circles.” Another downside is that Trump can no longer remember his name.
Former President Trump is once again endorsing one of Senator Tester’s opponents, Tim Sheehy, in his bid for re-election to the US Senate. Tim has “kissed Trump’s ring” and adopted Trump’s outlandish MAGA positions. Hopefully, enough savy and freedom-loving Montana voters will see through the foolhardiness of Tim’s blind loyalty to a revengeful, convicted felon.