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U.S President Donald Trump presents fast food to be served to the Clemson Tigers football team to celebrate their Championship at the White House on January 14, 2019 in Washington, DC.
- President Donald Trump's aversion to vegetables and love of junk food is well known, and former White House physician has described his attempt to introduce more healthy eating into the president's diet.
- "We were making the ice cream less accessible, we were putting cauliflower into the mashed potatoes," Dr. Ronny Jackson told The New York Times.
- Trump was found to be clinically obese in his physical exam last year, weighing in at 243 pounds.
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Former White House physician Dr. Ronny L. Jackson has described to The New York Times his plot to introduce more vegetables into junk-food fanatic President Donald Trump's diet.
Jackson, who is currently campaigning to be elected representative of Texas' 13th congressional district, told The Times that before the leaving the role as Trump's physician, he had been determined to cut the president's weight by 10 to 15 pounds, possibly by introducing an exercise bike.
"The exercise stuff never took off as much as I wanted it to," he said. "But we were working on his diet. We were making the ice cream less accessible, we were putting cauliflower into the mashed potatoes."
Jackson's glowing endorsement of the president's physical condition while he was White House physician - where he claimed the president could live "200 years" with dietary improvements - had earned him Trump's favor.
In 2018, Jackson was nominated by Trump to head the Department of Veteran's Affairs, but later was forced to withdraw his candidacy after reports emerged of allegations of faulty prescription practices and drunkenness at work.
Jackson shakes Trump's hand after leaving Walter Reed Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland.
Trump's love of junk food is well known.
He famously fueled his presidential campaign with Diet Coke and McDonald's, and served a Big Mac buffet on silver platters when Clemson University's football team visited the White House in January 2019.
Some foreign leaders have catered to Trump's indifference to haute cuisine, and on the president's first official visit to Japan in 2017 the country's prime minister, Shinzo Abe, eschewed the country's traditional delicacies and served the president a beefburger after they discussed affairs of state.
The president was reportedly placed on a crash diet, swapping junk food for salads, after a physical by Jackson in 2018 found him to be just one pound short of clinical obesity.
But it seemed to have little effect, with the president found to have gained weight in last year's physical, weighing in at 243 pounds.
- Read more:
- 'They don't serve cheeseburgers': Trump's beef-heavy diet largely consists of fast food and steak, but he'll be living on vegetarian meals during his trip to India
- Trump's weight is one pound below the obesity level, and his doctor said he should lose 10 to 15 pounds