Meet Ronny Jackson, who treated Donald Trump after his assassination attempt: the Texas congressman was personal physician to Trump and Barack Obama, but why was he investigated by the military?

Aug 9, 2024

Ronny Johnson poses with former US president Donald Trump. Photo: @RonnyJacksonTX/X

Ronny Jackson served three White House administrations between 2010 and 2019; he left while being investigated for reportedly drinking on the job and handing out prescription meds without a script

After his White House tenure, Jackson left the military – with a demotion in status – and chose to pursue politics; he’s currently a two-term congressman who has former president Trump’s backing

In the wake of the assassination attempt against former US president Donald Trump last month, Texas congressman Ronny Jackson offered insight into the extent of the injuries to Trump’s ear and detailed the treatment he had after the attack.

One week after the incident, in a memo released by Trump’s campaign office – the former president is running for re-election in November – Jackson said the gunshot wound to the right ear came “less than a quarter of an inch from entering his head”, per AP News. He added that the wound was 2cm wide and that Trump was still experiencing intermittent bleeding at the time.

Ronny Jackson, former personal physician to ex US president Donald Trump, takes questions from the media at a White House press briefing in 2018. Photo: @RonnyJacksonTX/X

Jackson, who was the personal physician to Trump when he was president and served in both George W. Bush and Barack Obama’s administrations, spoke to the Republican presidential nominee on the day he was shot. He told The New York Times that he’d asked Trump if there was anything he could do to help, to which Trump responded, “I would prefer to have you here.” Jackson boarded a flight the same day and arrived at Trump’s private club in New Jersey at 4.30am on Sunday.

So just who is this doctor that both former presidents Trump and Obama have trusted with their lives?

Ronny Jackson served in the US Army

Ronny Jackson wears military fatigues during a 2005 deployment to Iraq. Photo: @RonnyJacksonTX/X

According to a report by the US Department of Defense, Jackson began active duty in the naval service when he graduated from medical school in 1995. The document also notes that, after graduating from the Undersea Medical Officer Program in 1996, Jackson took up multiple operational assignments. In 2005, he was deployed to support Operation Iraqi Freedom as an emergency medicine physician for a combat surgical shock trauma platoon.

Per the Texas Tribune, Jackson was the White House Medical Unit’s director between 2010 and 2014. The publication adds that former US president Obama personally selected Jackson to be his physician in 2013, with Jackson also serving as Trump’s physician until 2019.

Why was Ronny Jackson criticised over his comments about Donald Trump’s health?

Ronny Jackson (right) smiles as Donald Trump, then US president, makes a speech. Photo: @RonnyJacksonTX/X

Jackson was criticised for his unusually optimistic comments about the health of then US president Donald Trump. Per The Guardian, Trump is known to avoid exercise and to enjoy eating McDonald’s and drinking Diet Coke. But in a 2018 White House briefing about the president’s annual physical exam, Jackson told reporters that Trump’s health was “excellent”, adding that the president only required around four or five hours of sleep a night.