A Pentagon watchdog has uncovered a series of problems with the White House medical unit that took place during the Trump administration, including the unit providing controlled substances to ineligible White House staff.
A new report of the Department of Defense Inspector General found that the White House Military Medical Unit provided a wide range of health care and pharmaceutical services to ineligible personnel, in violation of federal law and policy, senior unit leaders ordering practices inconsistent with Pentagon guidance. The report also reveals that contractors at the White House military medical units said they did not have the authority to refuse requests from the units’ top leaders.
The report found that controlled substances, including opioids and sleeping pills, were “not properly accounted for,” in violation of federal regulations. The White House medical unit used handwritten notes to track the inventory of controlled substances, which explains the frequent errors, the report said. The report found the unit was dispensing Ambien without verifying patients’ identities and purchasing the Ambien brand, which costs 174 times more than the generic brand. The report said the medical unit also purchased the brand Provigil, another sleeping pill that costs significantly more than its generic counterpart. The White House medical unit also improperly disposed of controlled and non-controlled substances, the watchdog found.
The report said these problems arose because “White House medical officials did not view their operations as a pharmacy.”
“Without oversight by trained pharmacy staff, the White House Medical Unit’s pharmacy management practices may have been prone to prescribing errors,” the report said. “Additionally, the practices of the White House Medical Unit demonstrated inadequate medication management and increased risk to the health and safety of patients treated within the unit.”
The inspector general’s investigation was prompted by complaints filed in 2018 alleging that a senior military doctor assigned to the White House medical unit was involved in poor medical practices.
The report does not give names.
The Pentagon watchdog recommended that the director of the Defense Health Agency, in conjunction with the director of the White House Medical Unit, develop procedures for handling controlled and non-controlled substances.
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Sgt. Ronny Jackson, now a Republican congressman, led the White House medical unit under former President Barack Obama starting in 2009 and then under former President Donald Trump until 2018. Trump appointed Jackson for Secretary of Veterans Affairs in 2018, but Jackson stepped down. named after members of Congress such as Senator Jon Tester accused Jackson loose distribution of sleep-related medications Ambien and Provigil.
“At the White House,” Tester told CNN’s Anderson Cooper at the time, “they call him ‘the candy man’.”
The Trump White House defended Jackson. In 2021, a Pentagon inspector general report found that Jackson engaged in “inappropriate conduct” while serving as the top White House physician, alleging that he engaged in abusive behavior, such as that he sexually harassed his subordinates, and that he had been drinking while on duty. Jackson was never charged with any crimes.
