Donald Trump‘s former White House doctor, Ronny Jackson, said this week that his plans to make the president exercise more “never took off” but that officials did encourage healthier eating in Trump’s diet.
“We were making the ice cream less accessible,” Jackson toldThe New York Timesin a story published Monday. “We were putting cauliflower into the mashed potatoes.”
Trump has made headlines for hislove of fast foodsince he began campaigning for president in 2015.
“On Trump Force One there were four major food groups: McDonald’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken, pizza and Diet Coke,” ex-Trump aides David Bossie and Corey Lewandowski wrote in their book,Let Trump Be Trump.
Jackson, who previously served as PresidentBarack Obama‘s White House doctor, had infamously touted Trump’s “incredible” health in an early 2018 news conference about the president’s most recent physical.
Months later, Jackson withdrew his name as Trump’s nominee to become the secretary of veteran affairs after a number of allegations came out against him in early 2018. He was prohibited from responding to them because he was still serving in the military, according to theTimes, but he told the paper they amounted to a smear campaign.
He is now running for a House of Representatives seat in Texas’ 13th district, hoping to stand out from the other Republicans as a Trump-approved conservative.
Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty
In theTimesprofile this week, Jackson opened up about the president’s health habits and the allegations against him.
Along list of complaintsabout Jackson became public after Trump nominated him for the Veteran Affairs post, including his alleged tendencies to loosely dish out prescriptions for addictive medications, create a hostile work environment and show up drunk on the job.
Democrat Sen. Jon Testerreleased the claimsin April 2018, comprised of conversations from 23 of Jackson’s colleagues. In the document, co-workers described Jackson as “the most unethical person I have ever worked with” who created a “toxic” and “abusive” work environment and was widely known as “The Candyman” for prescribing drug medications without proper paperwork.
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Jackson denied the allegations and told theTimeshis 2018 press conference defending the president’s health had put a target on him as a Trump ally.
Jacksonretired from the Navyas a rear admiral.
As theTimesnoted, Jackson was criticized for his hour-long press conference in 2018 during which he claimed Trump had “incredible genes,” did “exceedingly well” on a cognitive test and that if he ate better he “might live to be 200 years old.”
He said then that he would push to get Trump to lose 10 to 15 lbs., including getting the president to use an exercise bike or an elliptical at the White House.
Instead, Trump’s next physical showed he gained 4 lbs.
source: people.com
