Ronny Jackson was also nominated for a promotion to a two-star admiral on Friday. | Alex Wong/Getty Images white house Trump appoints Ronny Jackson chief medical adviser

President Donald Trump on Saturday named Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson as chief medical adviser and assistant to the president.

Jackson, the president's former physician and once his nominee to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs before, was also nominated for a promotion to a two-star admiral on Friday.


The dual announcements came ahead of Trump’s annual physical, which is scheduled for Feb. 8 at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

Jackson was tapped for the VA position in April 2018 but withdrew his nomination after allegations of overprescribing pills, drinking on the job and creating a hostile work environment surfaced. Jackson, who also served as a White House physician under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, denied the allegations, calling them “completely false and fabricated.”

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The Washington Post confirmed Saturday that Jackson is still under investigation by the Defense Department's inspector general.

Jackson also made headlines last year after conducting the president's physical, when he reported that Trump was in “excellent” health with “great genes,” despite widespread reporting indicating the septuagenarian president does not exercise regularly and does not eat healthily.

Also named on the list for assistant to the president is Stephanie Grisham, first lady Melania Trump’s press secretary, who was previously deputy assistant to the president. Grisham, who is often combative in her defense of the first lady, in December wrote a column published by CNN defending the first lady against “trivial and superficial” news coverage.