Featured Image Credit: Getty Images/BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI
Topics: Donald Trump, Alcohol, Politics, US News
Jen Thomas
Topics: Donald Trump, Alcohol, Politics, US News
Donald Trump once claimed to have never 'drunk a drop' of alcohol, but former nightlife workers are disputing this.
Last year, the president appeared on Theo Von's podcast This Past Weekend, when his sobriety was brought up.
Trump's love of Diet Coke is the stuff of legends, with his infamous 'Diet Coke button' installed in the Oval Office - which he has had reinstalled again for his second term - and he has been pictured toasting with the stuff on several major occasions.
The podcast host asked the president: "I noticed at the events you don't drink or smoke, right? You never have?" to which Trump replied: "No I never have, I had a great brother who taught me a lesson."
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This brother he is referring to was Fred Trump Jr, who died at the age of 42 back in 1981 from a heart attack.
"He smoked and drank - great guy - he was a very handsome guy - had a problem with alcohol and smoked a lot but I tell people, 'No drugs, no drinking, no cigarettes'. I tell that to my kids all the time," Trump said.
"So he was old enough that you would look up to somebody and I'd look up to him. I admired so much about him, he had so much going [for him]. He had the look, he had an unbelievable personality."
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He also told the podcaster that he could have envisioned himself developing the same problem.
While his sobriety now is admirable and understandable, multiple sources have challenged the president's claim of never having alcohol in his life.
In the 2019 book, The Method to the Madness: Donald Trump’s Ascent as Told by Those Who Were Hired, Fired, Inspired—and Inaugurated, everyone from bartenders, models and club owners have shared a different version of events.
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As per Vice, one infamous bartender who worked in the 1990s who goes by the name of Laraby, claimed in the book: "I served him. And he drank at the bar... He would order light beer. It was usually Miller Lite or Bud Light."
Laraby went on to say that Trump would 'nurse' his beer: "Even if they were there for hours, he would have three beers at the most."
However, Michael Ault, the owner of Spy Bar and Chaos in Manhattan, said Trump preferred other drinks: "He was drinking champagne or vodka, a liquor and not really a beer so much."
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One source, though, has vouched for the president's claims of sobriety, recalling the night he introduced Trump to the future First Lady, Melania.
Paolo Zampolli is the founder of ID Models, and said in the book that they all went to the Kit Kat club: "I introduced them. 'Melania, please meet Donald', you could see champagne and vodka on the table, but for sure Mr. Trump had only Diet Coke."
LADbible Group has reached out to the White House for comment.
If you've been affected by addiction and want to speak to someone in confidence, you can call American Addiction Centers on (888) 324-0595, available 24/7, or contact them through their website.