During his relatively brief tenure as a political figure, Rep. Ronny Jackson has found himself at the center of multiple controversies. The Texas Republican was, for example, a White House physician who made bizarre public comments about Donald Trump’s health, which in turn made him the subject of ridicule.
Soon after in the president’s first term, Trump announced that he wanted Jackson to join his Cabinet as secretary of Veterans Affairs, despite an obvious lack of qualifications. That didn’t go too well, either: Amid reports about Jackson’s alleged pattern of substance abuse, harassing women and creating a “toxic” work environment (all of which Jackson denied), the nominee faced bipartisan opposition. The White House pulled his nomination soon after.
Two years later, Jackson was elected to Congress, but the revelations continued. In 2021, the Pentagon’s inspector general’s office concluded that Jackson had engaged in “inappropriate conduct” while serving as Trump’s doctor, adding that the Republican “drank alcohol, made sexual comments to subordinates, and took the sedative Ambien while working as White House physician.” The Defense Department’s internal watchdog also found that Jackson mistreated subordinates and “disparaged, belittled, bullied and humiliated them.” (Jackson again denied any wrongdoing.)
A year later, the Navy demoted Jackson from admiral to captain as a consequence of his misconduct.
It’s against this backdrop that The Associated Press reported:
Rep. Ronny Jackson announced that the Navy has restored his retired rank of rear admiral, overturning a 2022 demotion that followed a scathing investigation that found major issues with his behavior while he was the top White House physician. The Texas Republican on Wednesday posted a June 13 letter from Navy Secretary John Phelan saying he had reinstated Jackson to the retired rank of a one-star admiral following a ‘review of all applicable reports and references.’
A Navy spokesperson confirmed in a written statement to The Associated Press that the military branch did, in fact, reverse the punishment it had imposed three years earlier.
Is it possible that the Navy, for entirely benign reasons, decided to revisit Jackson’s case, to reassess the evidence and findings, and concluded that he’d been treated unfairly? Sure, I suppose that’s possible.
But given everything we know about Trump, his administration, his efforts to politicize the military and his eagerness to reward political allies — especially those caught up in damaging controversies — it’s difficult to discount that this recent development for Jackson appears to be overtly political and unrelated to merit. Or as the AP’s report added, “The decision to restore Jackson’s rank comes as the Pentagon has become increasingly transparent in offering benefits and consideration to those it sees as personally loyal supporters of President Donald Trump, while those who are seen as unsupportive of Trump have been pushed out of senior roles across the military.” The conventional wisdom suggests the president and his operation want to tear down the federal bureaucracy, but that’s not quite right. It’s more accurate to say they want to reshape the federal bureaucracy into a political tool, to be used for their own benefit. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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