White House official hints at Trump drug abuse rumors, calls out his 'snorting'


A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
Thank you for signing up to TheWeek. You will receive a verification email shortly.
There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again.
Over the weekend, Donald Trump suggested that both he and Hillary Clinton should be drug-tested before Wednesday's presidential debate. "Athletes, they make them take a drug test, right? … Why don't we do that?" Trump said at a Saturday rally, hinting that Clinton had taken some sort of stimulant because she was "all pumped up at the beginning" of the last debate, but seemed exhausted by the end.
Of course, if any candidate has been subject to drug abuse rumors, it's been Trump and his persistent sniffling. A pesky case of the sniffles can be a sign someone is using cocaine, and though there have been no other indications Trump has a drug problem — in fact, he's famously a teetotaler — White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest was bemused enough by Trump's drug test suggestion to take a whack at the rumors:
Earnest immediately said he was "just trying to have a little fun" with his quip — but surely, somewhere in a dark, dingy corner, the internet's conspiracy machines are whirring away.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Continue reading for free
We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.
Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.
Sign up to our 10 Things You Need to Know Today newsletter
A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
Kimberly Alters is the news editor at TheWeek.com. She is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.
-
Fernando Botero obituary: artist of 'whimsical rotundity'
Obituary Colombian painter and sculptor was known for his 'exuberant style'
By The Week Staff Published
-
Protective order
Cartoons
By The Week Staff Published
-
Astronauts return after circling Earth thousands of times while stuck in space
Speed read The astronauts were stranded on the International Space Station after their return capsule was hit by space junk
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
Biden creates White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention
Speed Read The office will be led by Vice President Kamala Harris
By Justin Klawans Published
-
Rishi Sunak lambasts China after allegations of spy in UK Parliament
Speed Read
By Justin Klawans Published
-
Judge denies Mark Meadows' request to move Georgia case to federal court
Speed Read
By Justin Klawans Published
-
Former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson dies at 75
Speed Read
By Justin Klawans Published
-
Clarence Thomas officially discloses trips from billionaire GOP donor
Speed Read
By Justin Klawans Published
-
Judge schedules Trump federal election plot trial for crowded March 2024
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published
-
Trump surrenders in Georgia election subversion case
Speed Read
By Catherine Garcia Published
-
Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, Putin ally-turned-rival, presumed dead in plane crash
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published