Rep. Ronny Jackson of Texas, who was Donald Trump's White House physician, examined his former patient after Saturday's assassination attempt and has remained by his side during much of the Republican National Convention, a source familiar with the situation told NBC News on Wednesday.
Jackson rode in Trump's motorcade on Tuesday night and has “been with the president a lot” over the last few days, the source said.
“Dr. Jackson has examined the president and consulted with Trump’s inner circle," this person said, adding that Trump is “in great spirits still and full recovery without surgery expected by Trump’s team and Ronny concurs.”
In an interview Tuesday with The New York Times, Jackson described Trump's injury by saying the "bullet took a little bit off the top of his ear in an area that, just by nature, bleeds like crazy.”
Jackson told Fox News on the day of the shooting that his nephew was also at the Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and was grazed by a bullet on his neck.
Before he was elected to Congress, Jackson was known for his effusive assessments of Trump's health as White House physician.
“He has incredibly good genes, and it’s just the way God made him,” Jackson told reporters in 2018, adding he thought Trump could live to be 200 years old if he ate better.
That year, Trump nominated him to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs. Jackson later withdrew his name after reports of misconduct arose during his time as top White House physician for Presidents Barack Obama and Trump. He denied the allegations, which included improperly doling out drugs and being drunk on the job, as being “completely false and fabricated.”
A 2021 Defense Department inspector general report found Jackson had engaged in “inappropriate conduct” when he was White House physician. Jackson denied any wrongdoing, and told reporters that Democrats were “using this report to repeat and rehash untrue attacks on my integrity” because “I have refused to turn my back on President Trump.”
Trump endorsed Jackson during his successful 2020 campaign for Congress.
