Now, with the first general-election debate of 2024 on Thursday night, Trump has taken the baseless accusation to new heights — accusing the president of being “higher than a kite” during his high-energy State of Union address this year and taking every opportunity to undercut a potentially energetic performance from his opponent.
“DRUG TEST FOR CROOKED JOE BIDEN??? I WOULD, ALSO, IMMEDIATELY AGREE TO ONE!!!” Trump wrote on social media this week. Campaign staff, Republican lawmakers and online influencers have all amplified the idea that Biden will need an injection to debate, with one Trump adviser even sharing a video of a syringe.
There is no evidence that Biden has used or plans to use performance-enhancing drugs. But Trump and his supporters have spread the baseless claim widely, as some Republicans worry openly that the bar for Biden’s performance Thursday has been set too low. Trump senior adviser Danielle Alvarez said in a statement Tuesday that Biden “will be highly prepared and alert on debate night” because of a “perfectly calibrated dosage” and said the focus should be on Biden’s policy record.
Democrats suggest Trump is trying to preempt a disconnect between the energetic Biden who will show up onstage and the “brain-dead zombie” that Trump’s campaign has portrayed at every turn.
“Donald Trump has never admitted losing anything in his life, and when he does lose, he always cries fraud,” said Democratic campaign strategist Joshua Karp, who compared Trump’s claims about drugs to his false claims the 2020 election was rigged. He said Trump is “confusing his conspiracy theory-loving base with the entire electorate.”
Lauren Hitt, a spokesperson for Biden’s campaign, said in a statement that Trump is “so scared of being held accountable for his toxic agenda” that “he and his allies are resorting to desperate, obviously false lies.”
Trump has a long history of making baseless and false claims with impunity: The Washington Post Fact Checker documented more than 30,000 false or misleading claims from Trump during his presidency. Campaigning for a second term, Trump has continued to make inaccurate claims at rallies and blasted out incendiary emails about his opponent, at one point falsely saying that Biden was “locked & loaded ready to take [him] out” during an FBI search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
Trump and his allies have spent the campaign questioning Biden’s physical and mental capacity, suggesting that he can barely walk or stand and sharing videos of Biden’s appearances that are sometimes edited in misleading ways.
At a rally this past weekend in Philadelphia — his last public event scheduled ahead of the debate — Trump did not discount Biden.
“I’m sure he’ll be prepared,” he said, right before bringing up drugs.
“Whatever happened to all that cocaine that was missing a month ago from the White House?” he said. “Whatever happened?” Trump also repeated his crude comment from 2020, telling the crowd that Biden was resting and then “a little before debate time, he gets a shot in the a–.”
He appeared to be referring to a small bag of cocaine discovered at the White House last summer. Trump has repeatedly suggested the substance was connected to the president and his son Hunter, who has struggled with drug abuse.
Biden and his family, including Hunter, were at Camp David before and after the drug was found on the ground floor of the West Wing, near where visitors taking tours are instructed to leave their cellphones. The Secret Service closed its investigation into the matter without identifying any suspects.
Biden says he has long abstained from drugs and alcohol, attributing the decision to not drink to growing up in a family that had its share of problems with alcohol abuse.
Republicans have floated the idea of Biden’s taking performance-enhancing drugs for months — particularly after the president’s State of the Union speech in March, which Biden allies hoped would help address doubts about his age.
The allegations of drug use have even drawn skepticism from some commentators who are often deferential to Trump.
“I just want to say, look. These are obviously very serious charges, that he’s jacked up. We don’t know that, we’re not doctors. We have no idea,” Fox host Maria Bartiromo said on her show in May, after Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) described Biden as “jacked up” at the State of the Union and said “the American people need to understand if they’re giving him some injection.”
Still, the claims have gotten extensive news coverage in the lead-up to the CNN debate. Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Tex.), who served as White House physician under Trump, made headlines with a formal letter to Biden demanding a drug test.
Trump’s advisers have echoed the drug claims. “You know they’re cookin’ in the lab!” longtime campaign aide Jason Miller wrote on X, the social media site, while sharing a news story on Biden’s debate prep.
Republicans are attempting to tap into broad concerns about Biden’s age reflected in public polling. Biden’s doctor said in February, after the president’s physical, that Biden “continues to be fit for duty.”
A Marquette Law School poll conducted in May found that 79 percent of registered voters thought the phrase “too old to be president” described Biden, 81, very well or somewhat well, while 54 percent said the same of Trump, who just turned 78.
Tyler Pager contributed to this report.
