Texas Rep. Ronny Jackson was quietly demoted by the Navy following an investigation into his behavior as the White House physician, a Navy spokesperson confirmed Thursday.
Jackson, who served as the top White House doc under President Obama and President Trump, retired in 2019 as a one-star rear admiral and was demoted to captain in 2022.
According to a Pentagon inspector general’s report, Jackson’s White House tenure was marred by him acting inappropriately, including regularly screaming at subordinates, drinking on the job, and once making “sexual and denigrating statements” about a female staffer.
However, the Texas congressman, first elected in 2020, has continued to refer to himself as an admiral, with his website describing him as a “retired U.S. Navy Rear Admiral with nearly three decades of military service.” He’s a member of the the House Armed Services Committee.
When the report was first released, Jackson described the allegations as politically motivated. The accusations first surfaced after then-President Trump nominated Jackson to run the Department of Veterans Affairs. Shortly after, Jackson declared Trump in “excellent health” after his 2018 physical exam. He eventually withdrew from consideration for the VA role.
A Navy spokesperson told the Washington Post the “substantiated allegations” against Jackson — bullying subordinates, “fostering a negative work environment” and drinking alcohol inappropriately — “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.”
A second inspector’s general report released in February found that during the Obama and Trump administrations, the White House Medical Unit gave out powerful sedatives and stimulants without prescriptions and provided complimentary treatment to patients who were not eligible for it.
