Trump Derails Hanukkah Speech to Brag About Health, Citing Former Doctor
During a White House Hanukkah reception, the president spent minutes praising his health and a former White House physician, overshadowing the event and reviving questions about health claims.
President Donald Trump derailed a White House Hanukkah reception Tuesday by turning the event into a self-promotional moment about his health, citing a claim from former White House physician Ronny Jackson that Trump was by far the healthiest of the presidents he served.
Trump opened the remarks by condemning the weekend mass shooting at Bondi Beach in Sydney, telling attendees that the antisemitic act that killed 15 people was a terrible, terrible thing before turning to the audience.
When he read the name of Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas) — the former White House physician turned GOP lawmaker — Trump abruptly shifted gears. “He was my White House doctor,” the president said, then launched into familiar jabs at Democratic predecessors. “Who’s the healthiest of all? Was it Barack Hussein Obama? Was it Sleepy Joe Biden? Or was it Donald Trump?” Jackson allegedly replied, “Trump was by far the healthiest.” Trump repeated the claim, adding, “He was the doctor for all three of us, and he said, ‘Trump was by far the healthiest.’ I love him.” He then underlined the sentiment: “If he didn’t say that, I would never have talked to him again.”
The remarks continued with several attendees invited on stage to offer praise, a moment that stretched the speech for several minutes as Trump framed the exchanges as part of his personal narrative. He later returned to Hanukkah, only to drift into other topics, briefly boasting about arms shipments to Israel before pivoting to Iran and asserting that he had stopped Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.
This episode is far from the first time Trump has highlighted his health or “good genes” in public. In October, he said at a press conference that, as White House physician, Jackson had declared Trump the “best physical specimen” of the presidents Jackson had served.
Jackson, who led the White House medical team under George W. Bush and later served as physician to Obama and Trump, is a figure at the center of competing recollections of the president’s health messaging and medical oversight. Biden, by contrast, has had a different physician during his presidency. The physician’s role has been a recurring point of interest given Trump’s frequent public pronouncements about his physique and vitality.
Beyond the health boast, the rhetoric surrounding Jackson has been controversial. In 2018, Jackson faced accusations of fostering a hostile work environment, improperly dispensing prescription drugs, and drinking on the job after the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee interviewed more than 20 people who had worked with him. A 2021 Department of Defense internal investigation found he had made inappropriate sexual comments about a female colleague and had bullied subordinates. Those findings have circulated in discussions about the trust and credibility surrounding medical staff who serve presidents.
The White House has not provided a detailed response to the current episode, and critics have used the moment to argue that Trump’s public appearances continue to blend political messaging with personal self-promotion. Supporters, meanwhile, have framed the remarks as part of Trump’s broader effort to highlight his leadership and doings in the region.
Biden’s administration has emphasized a separation between medical oversight and political commentary, noting the distinct roles of presidential physicians and the importance of professional standards in medical staff. The Hanukkah moment, however, is likely to be cited in discussions about how health narratives are deployed in high-profile public settings and what they reveal about the former president’s approach to communications.
As the exchange drew to a close, onlookers saw a familiar pattern: a public event overshadowed by a personal narrative, followed by a return to policy-oriented claims and international concerns. The episode adds to a longer record of Trump using public appearances to foreground self-promotion, even at events with a solemn or commemorative purpose.