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

White House press secretary Josh Earnest.
(Image credit: Screenshot/Mediaite)

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.

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Kimberly Alters

Kimberly Alters is the news editor at TheWeek.com. She is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.