Donald Trump is back at it—this time trotting out one of the most controversial figures from his orbit to sell a claim that strains even his own reality-bending standards.
At Tuesday’s Shamrock Bowl Presentation, Trump decided to reassure the room about his health by invoking former White House physician Ronny Jackson—the same Ronny Jackson whose career has been dogged by scandal and accusations of misconduct.
Trump didn’t ease into it. He went straight for the headline-grabbing claim.
“I’ll never forget, they said, ‘Who’s the healthiest president?’ Because he covered Obama. He covered some others—I don’t want to say who. And Trump. He said ‘By far Trump. There’s nobody even close.’”
That’s the pitch: a septuagenarian president with visible health issues is supposedly in better shape than Barack Obama was when he entered office at 47.
And Trump’s star witness? A man once nicknamed “the Candyman.”
Jackson’s history isn’t exactly clean. His nomination to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs imploded under the weight of allegations from nearly two dozen current and former colleagues. They accused him of handing out prescription drugs “like candy,” drinking on the job, and creating a toxic work environment.
The accusations didn’t stop there. Reports included claims that Jackson crashed a government vehicle while intoxicated, pounded on a female employee’s hotel door during an overseas trip until Secret Service stepped in, and regularly showed up to work hungover.
Jackson denied it all at the time, saying, “The allegations against me are completely false and fabricated,” before withdrawing from consideration.
Even after that public collapse, the hits kept coming. A 2021 Defense Department inspector general report found he made “sexual and denigrating” comments about a subordinate. He was later demoted from rear admiral to captain following his Navy retirement.
Yet none of that seems to matter to Trump.
Instead, Jackson has become a loyal political ally—now a congressman from Texas—and remains one of Trump’s go-to voices on his health, despite not serving as his physician anymore.
“Whenever I have a problem, I call Doc Ronnie and he works it out. He’s a great guy,” Trump said Tuesday.
That loyalty cuts both ways. Jackson continues to publicly vouch for Trump’s condition even as the president has been dealing with a string of visible health concerns since returning to office—swollen ankles, bruised hands, slurred speech, and an unsteady gait.
Still, Trump is sticking with the same script: he’s not just fine—he’s better than everyone else, even presidents decades younger.
And to make that case, he’s leaning on a doctor whose own credibility collapsed years ago.
Watch the clip below:
