Donald Trump’s nomination of Dr. Ronny Jackson is about to backfire spectacularly

| 9:10 am EDT March 30, 2018
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Donald Trump is facing worsening criminal scandals that could cost him his presidency, his fortune, his family, and his freedom. So where his focus at? Returning a favor to the military doctor who was willing to lie about his weight during a physical. Trump has nominated Dr. Ronny Jackson as his new VA Secretary. Not only is Jackson objectively unqualified and unlikely to be confirmed, the confirmation process is going to blow up in Trump’s face whether Jackson is confirmed or not.

At this point most of Trump’s top White House advisers have resigned, or been fired, or been arrested, or are in his dog house. It’s not clear that Trump is still taking advice from anyone who knows anything. That may explain why Trump doesn’t appear to have considered that Ronny Jackson will have to go through Senate confirmation hearings. It’s a given that the Democrats in the Senate will use their allotted time to ask Jackson about the blatantly dishonest medical report he issued about Trump, as well as the circumstances that led to Jackson’s appointment. This will take place on national television.

It’s not that Trump is overweight. So are plenty of other people. It’s that a military doctor was willing to lie about the height and weight of the President of the United States in rather blatant fashion. There is also the question of whether Trump explicitly offered Jackson a future promotion in exchange for lying about Trump’s weight. It’s one thing for Jackson to have gotten caught up in Trump’s latest ethics violation, but is Jackson willing to commit perjury? People go to prison for that.

This is all before getting to the question of what a Senate confirmation vote for Ronny Jackson would look like. Because this nomination reeks of quid pro quo, the Democrats will have an easy excuse to unanimously vote against him. That means if even two Senate Republicans vote against him, the nomination will fail. Considering how scandalous this nomination is, it’s highly unlikely Jackson will have the votes. The more relevant question is whether Donald Trump withdraws the nomination before it even gets that far.