A Report Claims That Donald Trump’s White House Was ‘Awash in Speed and Xanax'

Following former President Donald Trump's four-year term, four former top administration officials and others who worked at the White House said that staff members were often given speed for small things like an energy boost following an especially long shift. As per Rolling Stone, the report from the Defense Department's (DoD) inspector general claims that medications like Ambien and Provigil, which are used to treat excessive drowsiness, were distributed without first confirming the identity of the patients.

According to Rolling Stone's Noah Shachtman and Asawin Suebsaeng, citing a January report from the Defense Department Inspector General, "the White House Medical Unit under the Trump administration distributed controlled substances with scant oversight and even sloppier record keeping".  One source told the outlet, "It was kind of like the Wild West. Things were pretty loose. Whatever someone needs, we were going to fill this." The other sources claimed that Xanax was also widely supplied by the White House Medical Unit, although modafinil—also marketed as Provigil—was one of the medications they dispensed the most. According to the sources, top officials were also provided anti-anxiety medicine, which they then shared with others. One of Melania Trump's assistants visited the Medical Unit, according to an insider, and made a special request for Xanax. They claimed, "She just came in and demanded it." Upon not receiving a prescription for the medication, she "stormed out."

White House officials often faced "grueling" working circumstances, according to former press secretary Stephanie Grisham, particularly while traveling abroad. As per the reports, Trump's doctor, Dr. Ronny Jackson, would "come around Air Force One asking Donald Trump’s senior staff if they needed anything."Grisham further added, "When this happened on Air Force One, a nurse would be trailing him, writing down who got what." Numerous sources expressly pointed the finger at Dr.Jackson for the Medical Unit's "Wild West" drug culture. According to a study published in 2021, Jackson acted improperly at work when he traveled with the former president in March 2016. His actions, which included one incident in which he was "intoxicated" and "pounding on [a female subordinate's] hotel room door, screaming, yelling," were seen by or experienced by up to 56 subordinates.

In March of 2018, Dr. Jackson—a Republican congressman from Texas—resigned from his position as Physician to the President. That same month, The Washington Post noted that while Trump had nominated him to lead Veterans Affairs, his chances of being confirmed as a cabinet secretary were severely limited due to concerns raised by both Democrats and Republicans in the Senate over his qualifications. The outlet noted, "Nearly every source interviewed for this story traced the problems with the White House Medical Unit back to Jackson, who joined the team during the George W. Bush administration and became physician to President Barack Obama in 2013. Before then, he was known as an eccentric. Afterward, he became a menace, as several Defense Department investigations detail."