President Donald Trump, well known as a man who doesn’t drink alcohol, told reporters on Monday he has “never had a beer in my life” and joked that “it is one of my only good traits,” according to USA Today .
The president told CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins about his lack of a drinking habit when she asked a question about if he thought Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh had lied to the Senate Judiciary Committee about his high school and college drinking habits.
“I don’t think he did,” Trump answered. “Look, I’m just saying, I’m not a drinker; I can honestly say I’ve never had a beer in my life, OK?”
The president continued joking with the media. “It’s one of my only good traits, I don’t drink,” drawing laughs from the crowd of reporters in the White House’s Rose Garden.
“I’ve never had a glass of alcohol, I’ve never had alcohol. I just, for whatever reason. Can you imagine, if I had, what a mess I’d be?” Trump added, drawing more laughs. “I’d be the world’s worst.”
President Trump has been open about why he hasn’t tried alcohol during his life.
Fred Trump, the president’s older brother, died in 1981 at only 43 due to complications related to his alcoholism, as recalled by The Sun .
President Trump: “I’m not a drinker. I can honestly say I never had a beer in my life… I never had a glass of alcohol. I’ve never had alcohol… Can you imagine if I had? What a mess I’d be. I would be the world’s worst. I never drank, OK?” https://t.co/QxLhFXkboB pic.twitter.com/CZ3ndjSZsV
— CNN (@CNN) October 1, 2018
President Trump told the audience at a 2017 speech on opiate addiction that his brother frequently told him “don’t drink, don’t drink.”
“I had a brother Fred, great guy, best-looking guy, best personality, much better than mine, but he had a problem, he had a problem with alcohol,” President Trump told the crowd at his 2017 speech.
“And to this day, I’ve never had a drink. And I’ve had no longing for it. And I have no interest in it,” Trump continued.
President Trump then went on to defend Kavanaugh, his second nomination to the Supreme Court, who last week testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee along with Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, who accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault when both were teenagers.
“I never drank, I never drank, OK? But I can tell you, I watched that hearing,” President Trump said in reference to Kavanaugh and Dr. Ford’s testimony last week.
“I watched a man saying that he did have difficulty as a young man with drink,” Trump said, seemingly contradicting, according to Newsweek , Kavanaugh’s original testimony. “The one question I didn’t ask is how about the last 20 years, have you had difficulty the last 20 years? Because nobody said anything bad about him in many, many years.”
