Trump nominates his White House physician to rank of rear admiral

President Donald Trump has nominated his White House physician, Navy Rear Admiral (lower half) Ronny Jackson, to receive a second star, promoting him to the rank of rear admiral, according to a press release from Defense Secretary James Mattis.

Jackson, who serves as attending physician and deputy assistant to the president, is best known for appearing in the White House briefing room in January to give a somewhat glowing review of Trump's health.

"I told the president if he'd had a better diet over the last 20 years he could have lived to 200 years old," Jackson told reporters in response to a question about how to reconcile the president’s appetite for McDonald’s and Diet Cokes with what Jackson called his “excellent” health.

"The answer is he has incredibly good genes, it's just the way God made him," he said.

Jackson began his active duty naval service in 1995 at the Portsmouth Naval Medical Center in Virginia – the same year he graduated medical school at the University of Texas.

In 2005, he deployed to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom as the emergency medicine physician in charge of resuscitative medicine for a forward-deployed Surgical Shock Trauma Platoon.

One year later, he became a White House physician, serving in three different administrations. Jackson was the appointed physician to President Barack Obama before becoming the appointed physician to President Trump.