Featured Image Credit: Melina Mara-Pool/Getty Images
Topics: Donald Trump, Alcohol, US News
Joe Harker
Topics: Donald Trump, Alcohol, US News
Returning US president Donald Trump does not drink alcohol, and he has spoken about the reason why.
Being the leader of a country is one of those jobs where the occupant would probably be advised not to drink heavily, especially since while drunk Richard Nixon allegedly ordered a tactical nuclear strike on North Korea in response to a US spy plane being shot down in April 1969.
Despite the order to launch nukes supposedly being given by their commander in chief, Nixon's aides decided instead to wait until the next morning when he'd sobered up.
On another occasion in 1973 Nixon was so drunk that he was incapable of speaking to UK prime minister Ted Heath over the phone.
Advert
While visiting the White House in 1995, then-Russian president Boris Yeltsin reportedly got so drunk that secret service agents found him standing on Pennsylvania Avenue in nothing but his underwear trying to flag down a taxi and demanding a pizza.
While some US presidents have been teetotal in office, such as George W Bush and Jimmy Carter, Donald Trump has said that he has always been teetotal and not drunk alcohol.
Speaking to the Washington Post back in 2019, he explained that his brother Fred's death at the age of 42 from a heart attack caused by alcohol abuse had convinced him not to drink.
He said he told his older brother he was 'wasting your time' with alcohol and since regrets 'having put pressure on him', having tried to persuade him to give up his dream of being a pilot to run the family business.
Advert
He explained that seeing the physical toll drinking took on his brother also put him off touching booze.
"He was so handsome, and I saw what alcohol did to him even physically... and that had an impact on me, too," Trump had said, telling his interviewer he might not be around if he drank alcohol.
"Let’s say I started drinking, it’s very possible I wouldn’t be talking to you right now."
Instead of alcohol, Donald Trump's drink of choice is a Diet Coke.
Advert
That reputed 'Diet Coke button' you might have heard about isn't quite true, he can't just press a button that makes someone come in and bring him a Diet Coke.
Instead there's a button to call someone into the Oval Office which Trump mainly used to make people bring him a can.
In addition to changing the Oval Office décor, Trump has made some significant executive orders in the opening days of his presidency, including pulling the US out of the World Health Organization and pardoning around 1,500 people who took part in the insurrection against the US capitol in 2021.
He has also ordered the Gulf of Mexico to be renamed to the Gulf of America, declared a state of emergency at the US border with Mexico and signing an executive order which declares 'capital punishment is an essential tool for deterring and punishing those who would commit the most heinous crimes and acts of lethal violence against American citizens'.