Donald Trump suggested President Joe Biden maybe on illicit drugs after a white, powdery substance was found at the White House in July last year. The former president suggested Biden was "all jacked up" and "higher than a kite" during the State of the Union speech in March.
Newsweek contacted Biden's representatives by email for comment.
Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee for the 2024 election, discussed potentially facing Biden in debates ahead of November's polls, saying the event should be drug tested.
In July 2023, an investigation was launched after a white, powdery substance was discovered in a cubby near the White House's West Executive entrance and identified as cocaine.
"I think what happened is you know that white stuff that they happened to find, which happened to be cocaine in the White House, I don't know, I think something's going on there, because I watched this State of the Union, and he [Biden] was all jacked up at the beginning," Trump told Hugh Hewitt during Thursday's episode of his eponymous podcast.
"By the end, he was fading fast. There's something going on there. I want to debate. And I think debates, with him, at least, should be drug tested. I want a drug test."
When pressed by Hewitt if he believed the president was using cocaine, Trump responded by accusing Biden of being "higher than a kite" during the SOTU.
"And by the way, it was the worst, it was the worst address I've ever seen... because he doesn't represent us properly. That, I can tell you. But he's obviously, he's being helped some way, because most of the time, he looks like he's falling asleep," Trump said.
"And all of a sudden, he walked up there and did a poor job. But he was all jacked up."
Trump says Biden should be drug tested before the presidential debates because he might be using cocaine:
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) April 4, 2024
"I think what happened is you know that white stuff that they happened to find, which happened to be cocaine in the White House, I don’t know, I think something’s going on… pic.twitter.com/SrNyZKLfEg
When asked for further comment, Trump's spokesperson Steven Cheung told Newsweek in an email: "Cocaine was found in Joe Biden's house."
Biden's SOTU address was generally well received per polls and labelled an "unequivocal success."
"In short, Biden had his game on. This was an unequivocal success that will put to rest any talk of another candidate stepping in to replace Biden and will likely mark a turning point in the polls, which have already seen the Trump lead shrink to a statistical tie," Christopher Phelps, a professor of modern American history at the University of Nottingham in the U.K., told Newsweek in November.
The United States Secret Service revealed the results of the investigation on July 13, 2023, saying it sent the contents to the FBI's crime laboratory for testing.
However, the FBI's analysis could not find latent fingerprints and there was insufficient DNA or surveillance video footage to make any definitive conclusions.
"Therefore, the Secret Service is not able to compare evidence against the known pool of individuals. The FBl's evaluation of the substance also confirmed that it was cocaine," it said on its website at the time.
"At this time, the Secret Service's investigation is closed due to a lack of physical evidence."
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Shannon Power is a Greek-Australian reporter, but now calls London home. They have worked as across three continents in print, ... Read more
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