Ronny Jackson Under Fire Over White House Prescriptions

Republican Congressman Ronny Jackson is facing criticism online following the release of a report by the Inspector General of the Department of Defense that criticized how the White House Medical Unit handled prescriptions during the Donald Trump administration.

The report was the result of a multi-year investigation after the Department of Defense received complaints in 2018 concerning an unnamed senior military medical officer engaging in "improper medical practices," and found the unit's pharmacy operations had "severe and systemic problems."

The report did not name any individuals working at the White House Medical Unit at the time and did not apportion blame for the issues it uncovered. A spokesperson for Jackson, who served as the president's physician between 2013 and 2018, distanced him from the clinical management of the unit during the period the investigation covered when the report emerged. Jackson was director of the White House Medical Unit from 2010 to 2014.

The Department of Defense probe concluded that the White House Medical Unit's pharmaceutical management occurred without oversight, leading to prescribing errors and the dispensing of medicines to ineligible White House staff.

It found that drugs including opioids and sleep medications "were not properly accounted for" and that prescribers "wrote prescriptions for controlled substances that often lacked the medical provider and patient information mandated by [Drug Enforcement Agency] policy."

The report also questioned why the unit routinely ordered branded drugs instead of their generic equivalents that were far less costly. It said in a three-year period, the White House Medical Unit spent $98,000 on Provigil, used to treat sleepiness, which was 55 times more expensive than its generic equivalent.

Records published in the report also raised questions as they showed that, in the first nine months of 2019, the medical unit—which is responsible for tending to the medical needs of the White House staff—ordered 34 packs of fentanyl, 40 packs of morphine and 30 packs of ketamine. The drugs are usually used in a medical setting as a sedative, but can be used illicitly.

The Inspector General made a series of recommendations to improve administrative scrutiny of the unit, which the Pentagon agreed with. The report is based on reviews of White House Medical Unit records, including prescriptions from between 2017 and 2019, i.e. during the Trump administration. More than 120 officials, including hospital administrators, military medical providers and pharmacists were interviewed and transcripts of 70 previous interviews with former members of the White House Military Office who served there between 2009 and 2018 were also reviewed.

"I think we should consider 'Congressman Ronny Jackson should answer for all of this and probably lose his medical license' as an initial response," Luppe B. Luppen, a lawyer and writer based in New York City, wrote.

"Get his DEA license first. Then worry about his medical license," an X, formerly Twitter, user who described themselves as a healthcare professional said. "If I ever dispensed controlled substances [without] the proper documentation, the DEA would light my license on fire."

Lindy Li, an American political commentator and Democratic adviser, accused Jackson of "handing out fentanyl & ketamine like candy," despite no evidence in the report of the drugs being dispensed.

"White House doctor Ronny Jackson was handing out fentanyl & ketamine like candy. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin was handing out PPP [Paycheck Protection Program, a federal Covid relief initiative] money like candy. Republicans were handing out tax cuts to billionaires & corporations like candy. MAGA Republicans are the REAL Welfare Queens," she wrote.

Another social media user called on Democrats in Congress to open public hearings into the matter.

In a statement to Newsweek, a spokesperson for Jackson said that he was not the director of the White House Medical Unit during most of the period covered by the investigation, having ended his role as its director in 2014.

They added that in 2018, he was made chief medical adviser to the president—before the orders of controlled substances were made in the published records—and that his latter role in the White House concerned health policy and "had no association or involvement with the White House Medical Unit's clinical delivery of care."

Newsweek also approached Sean Conley, his successor who served until President Joe Biden was inaugurated in 2021, via email for comment on Monday.

Asked about whether the claims could hurt Jackson's reelection chances, Thomas Gift, a professor of American political science at University College London, told Newsweek they will "take the wind out of the sails of Republicans who loved to throw shade on Biden when cocaine was discovered in the White House last year," but was "not going to be a make-or-break political issue, especially since neither side can claim the moral high ground."

When news emerged that cocaine had been uncovered in a White House storage space, Jackson wrote in July 2023 that there was "ZERO doubt in my mind that the Biden White House is COVERING UP who brought cocaine into the White House," saying it was "the most CRIMINAL White House in history!"