Donald Trump confesses to taking drugs
Few people have less imagination than Donald Trump. We have learned over the years through bitter and repeated exposure to this toxic, bloviating monster, that Trump’s attacks on others are actually an immediate reflection of what he sees inside of himself.
Not just without evidence, but against all evidence, Trump, the guy who indolently spends his days hate-tweeting, watching television and playing golf, frequently refers to the hard-working Democratic legislators in Congress as the “do-nothing Democrats.”
During the 2016 campaign in which Trump cheated (e.g., with the help of Comey, the Russians and a disgracefully cooperating press), lied (e.g., “Nobody knows more about trade than I do”) and made promises he had no intention of keeping (e.g., “I will release my taxes after I’m elected”), he referred to Hillary Clinton as “Crooked Hillary.”
Trump gets away with this, in part, because there exists no mechanism to fact check him in real time. If a press briefing starts to go badly for him he can just walk out. If reporters ask a question he doesn’t like he just cuts them off and calls them “nasty.” But the fact remains, Trump lies and cheats and commits crimes right out in the open, then accuses people of committing those same lies and cheats and crimes when he knows that he and he alone is the guilty one.
Psychologists call it projection, or the unconscious transfer of one’s own motivations or practices onto others. It’s therefore useful to think of Trump’s insults and accusations of others as actual confessions.
So when Trump told Fox News Saturday night, without evidence, that Joe Biden took drugs to get him through the Democratic debates, Trump is confirming what we’ve known all along. Trump frequently takes drugs to get through press conferences, speeches and other occasions. It explains his frequent slurring of words, sniffing and general incoherence.
“I think there’s probably – possibly – drugs involved,” Trump told Jeanine Pirro Saturday, while trying to smear Joe Biden as a drug user. “That’s what I hear. I mean, there’s possibly drugs. I don’t know how you can go from being so bad where you can’t even get out a sentence … ” (I use ellipses here because Trump didn’t even finish his own sentence. A common practice among drug users.)
First, let’s be clear on something. When Trump says “that’s what I hear,” that’s a lie. He hasn’t “heard” any such thing from anybody. There are no rumors floating around that Joe Biden is taking drugs. He hasn’t been. Joe has a stammer, and, in spite of that stammer, he’s generally more coherent and articulate than your average thirty year old. What’s more, Joe Biden speaks in whole paragraphs that make sense, which is more than one can say about Trump, with or without drugs.
Second, Trump has been rumored for years to be a serial drug taker. Comedian Tom Arnold claims Trump constantly snorted adderall on the set of “The Apprentice.” Some claim he also used cocaine. The late actress Carrie Fisher said Trump was “absolutely” on cocaine during the 2016 presidential debates. Fisher had long been open about her own cocaine abuse, and few know the signs better than former addicts.
So it’s safe to infer from Trump’s own unfounded, unsourced and irresponsible accusation of Joe Biden that the rumours are true, that Trump himself is a drug user. Given the contempt he’s displayed toward his own body — his staggeringly poor diet, his aversion to exercise, his runaway girth bordering on morbid obesity — it’s easy to believe.
There are a million reasons why Donald Trump is unfit to be president of the United States, this has been another one. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.