It’s no secret that a job like being the president or the leader of a nation is a difficult one, so it would make sense that presidents are advised to tone it down on the drinking.
US president Donald Trump doesn’t drink alcohol. In fact, he has allegedly never had it, and he has spoken out about the reason why that is.
Drinking could result in rash decisions
Drinking alcohol is certainly not for everyone and it’s especially worrying when leaders have one too many glasses.
As an example, Richard Nixon had allegedly ordered a tactical nuclear strike on North Korea while drunk. This was supposedly a response to a US spy plane being shot down in 1969.
Thankfully, it didn’t happen
Although Nixon’s aides had been given an order by their commander in chief, they thankfully decided not to act on it and instead waited for him to have sobered up the next morning.
Safe to say being drunk isn’t the best shape to be in when you have that much power.
Alcohol affected Nixon’s duties another time
The 1969 alleged incident was not the only time Nixon’s behavior had been affected by having too much of the liquid drugs.
He had also been too drunk to properly speak with the UK prime minister at the time, Ted Heath, over the phone in 1973.
A Russian president was also intoxicated
Nixon isn’t the only one with stories about the dangers of intoxication.
In 1995, then-Russian president Boris Yeltsin had reportedly gotten so drunk that he was found half naked by secret service agents. They found him trying to hail a taxi and asking for a pizza.
Many US presidents have been sober in office
While Trump isn’t the first to be teetotal as the president, with former presidents like George W Bush and Jimmy Carter being sober while in office, he has said that he has always been that way, having never had any alcohol.
His brother’s death scared him away
The US president explained why he shies away from alcohol, telling The Washington Post in 2019 that his brother Fred had died at the age of 42 from a heart attack caused by his alcohol abuse.
This convinced Trump not to come near the drug.
He had told his brother it was a waste
Trump expressed regrets for “having put pressure on him [Fred]” to give up being a pilot and handle the family business instead.
He also explained that he had told his late older brother that he was “wasting” his time drinking alcohol.
Alcohol took a physical toll on Fred
With alcohol having taken a toll on Fred’s body, this was also part of the reason Trump was convinced not to drink.
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“He was so handsome, and I saw what alcohol did to him even physically… and that had an impact on me, too,” he said.
Trump doesn’t think he’d be here
The returning US president admitted that he doesn’t believe he’d be around if he had had a tendency for drinking any alcohol.
“Let’s say I started drinking, it’s very possible I wouldn’t be talking to you right now,” he said.
His drink of choice is a Diet Coke
Instead of alcohol, Trump’s drink of choice is a can of Diet Coke.
While it’s not true that he has a ‘Diet Coke button’ that he presses for one, he does have a button that calls someone into the Oval Office, which he mainly uses to ask for a can.
