I also believe he has popped pills (and Carrie Fisher claimed to see him snort cocaine), is extremely disturbed (due at least in part to an upbringing simultaneously abusive and enabling), and suffers from serious cognitive decline.
But for him to avoid booze, sure. The man has been photographed for so many decades, if he drank we’d see it. There would be no reason for him to hide it. Heck, he’d probably brag about what a studly drinker he is. Drinking is considered a manly activity in our culture, and so he would have everything to gain by drinking and being open about it, as he tries to convey a hypermasculine persona. This is one of the few things, maybe the only thing in the world that I’m inclined to believe he’s telling the truth about.
I think the most likely Trump addiction is to flattery.
I was going to say that DJT is addicted to power, but today’s Vanity Fair article, and the reaction, almost makes me wonder who is more powerful, Susie or Donald (Putin being another possibility). So I stick with flattery.
P.S. I was a influenced in this post by listening to the recent NPR Hidden Brain interview with psychiatrist Anna Lembke, who makes the case for there being a wide range of addictions other than to substances.
I agree with the previous. He’s probably afraid of alcohol (wisely) due to what happened to his brother. But he’s extraordinarily stupid and would probably tell himself that pills aren’t an abuse risk, so he can take anything his personal “physician” prescribes.
I’d guess he’s on the typical busy-person’s regimen of uppers to get started in the morning, with small bumps to keep him going as needed, to be shut off at bedtime with downers. So, dangerous and exhausting, but not fun. No wonder he’s so miserable.
In my, um, friends’ experience, it’s often alcohol and cocaine that can bring on the verbal garbage salad. W admitted to having once been an alcoholic, and I recall some ascribing his personality to being a “dry drunk”.
For all the parties trump went to in the 80s & 90s, Colombian and Bolivian “marching powder” (but not Peruvian, with all that venom spewing everywhere) was the stuff.
I’ve said it before and believe it: In the first primary with Hilary he was coked out.
So surely he’s got some cocktails of coke/speed/other amphetamines as well as steroids at his disposal. I reckon the percentages vary depending on the length of speech, whether he is speaking, standing, or sitting (been doing a lot of that lately).
Only recently, I recall two instances of him falling asleep while someone else (one would hope) is speaking. He may have been doing that when the guy fainted, and he was unaware (or perhaps speaking while sitting), yet his only reaction was to stand up, smooth his jacket and tie, and pose for a photo (which uncropped still shows the medics to his left).
tldr; He is definitely on some mix of narcotics and steroids. We will probably never know (I think the doctor-patient confidentiality is forever).
It’s very likely Trump is using drugs. I’ve thought this ever since he accused Biden of using drugs. With Trump that’s a pretty good indicator; he accuses the other guy of whatever it is he himself is doing.
I don’t think Trump is drinking. If he were, he’d be accusing other people of being alcoholics.