Pakistan’s lobbying playbook: How Trump’s ex-doctor Ronny Jackson helped Islamabad clinch $500 million mining deal during Op Sindoor

(FILES) US President Donald Trump during a meeting with Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir at the White House, in Washington, DC on September 26, 2025.

Pakistan used former White House physician Ronny Jackson’s ties to Donald Trump to advance a rare earths mining deal after the Pahalgam attack, leveraging Trump-linked lobbyists and contacts to secure a $500 million agreement with US Strategic Metals.

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Pakistan’s latest outreach to the Trump ecosystem appears to run through an unlikely but influential conduit: Ronny Jackson, the former White House physician who enjoys the personal trust of US President Donald Trump. Fresh filings under the Foreign Agents Registration Act suggest that Islamabad quietly leveraged Jackson’s proximity to Trump during the tense weeks following the Pahalgam terror attack and India’s Operation Sindoor, using him to advance a sensitive rare earths and mining deal with strategic implications.

The disclosures by Pakistan-hired lobbyists Javelin Advisors LLC and Conscience Point Consulting show that Jackson was in direct contact with Pakistani authorities on May 1, barely days after the Pahalgam attack, for an in-person meeting on rare-earth cooperation. This was followed by a phone call on May 6 to discuss the emerging India-Pakistan military situation, precisely as New Delhi launched Operation Sindoor on the intervening night of May 6 and 7.

After hostilities ceased, another call on May 16 sought to arrange a dinner meeting to push the proposed deal forward. By late May, the engagement intensified. A crucial call on May 28 was followed by an email carrying the draft memorandum of understanding. Javelin’s own filing described the purpose succinctly as “Delivery of Proposed MoU.” Two days later, Jackson participated in another call and exchanged text messages via Javelin on “Rare earths development and proposed MoU.”

The effort paid off months later. In September, a $500 million agreement was finalised between US Strategic Metals and Pakistan’s Frontier Works Organisation, a military-linked entity long associated with Rawalpindi’s strategic projects.

Jackson’s role is not limited to Pakistan. He has also been fronting Trump-linked mining interests in Africa, particularly in Congo and Rwanda. He held key meetings with leaders on both sides that helped pave the way for the Congo-Rwanda peace deal signed in June in Trump’s presence. That agreement has direct implications for mineral access, as Rwanda-backed M23 rebels control the largest coltan and tungsten mining regions in eastern Congo, areas of keen interest to Washington.

Far from a conventional lobbyist, Jackson is a retired US Navy doctor who served in the White House Medical Unit from the days of George W Bush. He was physician to Barack Obama and even made headlines for treating a young girl bitten by one of Obama’s dogs. His decisive political turn came during Trump’s first term, when he publicly vouched for Trump’s health in a widely criticised press conference, praising his “good genes” and claiming that with a healthier diet Trump could have lived for 200 years.

Trump’s personal fondness for Jackson remains undiminished. At last month’s White House Hanukkah reception, Trump reportedly singled him out and said, “He was my White House doctor. Ronny was asked, who's the healthiest of all? Was it Barack Hussein Obama? Was it Sleepy Joe Biden? Or was it Donald Trump? And he said, ‘Trump was by far the healthiest’…I love him.”

During his first term, Trump gave Jackson the title of assistant to the president and chief medical adviser and even nominated him for Secretary of Veterans Affairs in 2018. That bid collapsed after members of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee raised serious reservations. Jackson retired from the Navy in 2019 as a rear admiral, later entering politics and winning a Texas congressional seat in 2020 as a Republican.

His record since has been controversial. Jackson was reportedly present on Capitol Hill during the January 6 rally against the 2020 election results and was said to be part of the attack on Congress, leading to probes. Under the Biden administration, he was investigated for misconduct during his naval service and demoted to captain. Trump has since restored his rank.

The Pakistan connection is particularly striking given Jackson’s earlier positions. During the Biden presidency, he introduced a bill calling for the removal of Pakistan’s major non-NATO ally status. Now, however, he appears to be a central figure advancing Islamabad’s interests in Washington, working closely with Javelin Advisors LLC, run by Keith Schiller, a former Trump deputy assistant, and George Sorial, the former executive vice president of The Trump Organization.

The broader lobbying operation has been orchestrated by Robert Seiden of Seiden Law LLP, who has stakes in Javelin Advisors and subcontracted Conscience Point Consulting. FARA filings also show that Pakistan’s outreach during Operation Sindoor targeted two other US lawmakers from Texas, both former Navy officers: Dan Renshaw and Morgan Luttrell. Renshaw even hosted a podcast in May warning of the risk of India-Pakistan tensions escalating into a nuclear conflict, a narrative long pushed by Rawalpindi in Washington.

Taken together, the filings paint a familiar picture of Pakistan’s strategy. Even as it faced international scrutiny after a major terror attack, Islamabad moved swiftly to activate lobbying networks, exploit personal relationships around Trump and push commercial deals tied to strategic resources. The optics are hard to ignore. While India was responding militarily to terrorism, Pakistan was busy cultivating influence corridors in Washington, once again betting on access, alarmism and backdoor diplomacy rather than accountability.