Doctor Suck Up

If you have to kiss ass to get a job, you’re most likely going to have to continue sucking up to keep it. Watching a Trump cabinet meeting is evidence of this. Dr. Ronny Jackson may be affable enough that he won’t mind. This is a man who has literally been inside Donald Trump. The man has a strong stomach.

Jackson has been the White House physician for the past three administrations, and his integrity and professionalism was never questioned until he issued his report after giving Trump a physical.

If Jackson had told us everything was fine with Trump, that’d be one thing. But instead, he out-performed Trump’s previous doctor, who said Trump would be the healthiest president in our nation’s history. Jackson told us that if Trump had a healthier diet over the past two decades that he could live to be 200 years old.

Even other physicians were skeptical when Jackson said Trump weighs 239 lbs. People who possess working eyeballs were incredulous when Jackson listed Trump’s height at 6 feet 3 inches. When asked how a 71-year-old man who subsists on McDonalds and Diet Coke and never exercises and finds stairs challenging, Jackson said it was “good genes.”

Also puzzling was Jackson’s verdict that Trump is “very, very sharp” after giving him a psychological examination. Donald Trump doesn’t know the difference between vocational schools and community colleges, but sure. He’s sharp.

If Jackson can’t be trusted to be honest with someone’s health exam, how can we trust that he won’t just tell Donald Trump what he wants to hear as he heads the Department of Veterans Affairs?

Trump fired David Shulkin from that position, which was revealed in the same tweet announcing Jackson’s appointment. Shulkin barely found out before the tweet was issued. Trump called Shulkin to fire him, chickened out, made small talk, and had Chief of Staff John Kelly call him after to do the firing.

Jackson will win confirmation unless the hearings expose something terrifying about the guy. I find this unlikely as Ben Carson and Betsy DeVos were both confirmed by the Senate despite the terrifying facts they’re Ben Carson and Betsy DeVos.

A lot of people point out that Jackson has no management experience that qualifies him to head the second-largest agency in our nation, and serves over nine million individuals. The V.A. has been plagued with problems, but Jackson’s inexperience won’t be a factor as it’s not required.

Just as Carson’s qualifications to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development and DeVos’ non-existent experience in public education to lead the Department of Education aren’t important to Republicans, either is Jackson’s to lead the V.A. Jackson’s main qualification appears to be that he praised the president and said he had “good genes.”

Experience to lead an agency is not necessary when you want to do away with that agency. While HUD and Education can rot for all Republicans care, they want to eliminate the V.A. and privatize the services they’re responsible for. Privatizing the V.A. has been a Koch Brothers’ initiative for years.

Trump’s promise to drain the swamp has only delivered a pattern of nepotism and cronyism. His former golf caddy is now the White House social media director. A contractor married to one of the Trump’s former household staff members now has a job at the Environmental Protection Agency. And a longtime friend of the Trump family who has been involved in planning golf tournaments and Eric Trump’s wedding is the head of the New York and New Jersey office of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. And, has anyone figured out what Ivanka’s job is yet?

Jackson may want to keep his future in mind. Next time he talks to Trump on the phone, he better beware the ring after. He may also want to hold it in for the duration of his appointment as John Kelly likes to fire people when they’re sitting on a toilet.

He needs to think about life after Trump too, though I’m sure he can give physicals to everyone on Big Brother.

Here’s the video.

Please consider making a donation to keep the cartoons, columns, and videos coming. Reader contributions, small and large, really do help and are appreciated in a time of dwindling revenue for political cartoonists. You will also be supporting free speech and liberty while those in power are doing all they can to suppress it. You can also support by purchasing a signed print for $40.00. Just look at the right of this page and click the PayPal button, or you can email and make other arrangements. Thank you!