Dems Targeted Trump Official For Past Alcoholism Then Cried Foul On Biden Addiction Stories

Democrats tried to exploit the alcoholic past of a Trump official in the same election they cried foul over critiques of Hunter Biden's crack addiction.

Trump opens up about late brother's struggles with alcoholism in moving conversation with Theo Von



During a candid conversation with comedian and podcast host Theo Von released earlier this week, former President Donald Trump opened up about his late brother who struggled with alcohol addiction.

Von, 44, and Trump, 78, touched on a number of topics during the episode of Von's podcast "This Past Weekend," including illegal immigration, Trump's recent debate with Biden, and his son Barron, who's reportedly a fan of Von.

The segments of their conversation that have gone viral on social media, though, related to their discussion about substance abuse, and Trump shared stories about his late brother Fred Trump, an alcoholic who died in 1981 at the age of 42.

'The reason it's good talking about it is, it might help other people. If it helps one other person, it's worth the conversation.'

The former president claimed that Fred "knew he had a problem" with alcohol but could not break it. Because of his struggles, Fred always advised younger brother Donald to steer clear of addictive substances.

"Don't drink, don't drink," Donald Trump recalled Fred saying. "And he said, 'Don't smoke.' He smoked, and he drank."

Donald Trump apparently followed his older brother's advice, telling Von he has "never had a glass of alcohol." Moreover, he admitted that, like Fred, he likely has the "personality" that would lend itself toward addiction.

"I think maybe I'm a personality type where I could have had the problem if I drank," he explained.

"I couldn't have been successful if I had that problem."

During the exchange, Trump also hinted at his continued grief over Fred's untimely death. His voice became rather quiet as he described Fred as a "great guy" and a "great brother" who was "very handsome."

"I admired a lot, so much about him," Trump told Von. "He had so much going. He had the look. He was an unbelievable personality, like, an incredible personality."

When pressed to describe a poignant memory with Fred, Trump shared that Fred was a "very talented" pilot who "loved" to fly and who even helped other skillful pilots improve their craft.

"But ultimately he had to give that [up] because of the alcohol," Trump said. "He had to give that up, which was a hard thing for him to do."

When Von expressed concern that he was touching on too sore of a subject, Trump claimed he wanted to share these stories about Fred in hopes of helping others with similar challenges.

"The reason it's good talking about it is, it might help other people. If it helps one other person, it's worth the conversation," Trump stated.

Trump claimed he also had a friend from business school who likewise died from alcohol addiction. The friend insisted on drinking scotch, which he didn't like, "to be successful in business."

"He hated the taste of scotch, and then he couldn't live without it — literally," Trump recalled of his friend, whom he did not name.

For his part, Von admitted that he has been in recovery for alcohol and drug addiction off and on for the past decade. He claimed he has been sober for the past two years or so.

When Trump asked which addiction, drugs or alcohol, was more difficult to shake, Von claimed drugs were harder but said that consuming alcohol was the gateway to using other drugs.

"If I have a drink then it's tougher for me to prevent myself from [using drugs]," explained Von, who said addiction runs in his family.

Later in the episode, the conversation returned to drug use, and Von went into more detail about the racing feeling caused by cocaine.

"Cocaine will turn you into a damn owl, homie," Von said, addressing the 45th president of the United States. "You know what I'm saying? You'll be out on your own porch, you know, you'll be your own street lamp."

Von insisted the feeling is "horrible" but that addicts continue to pursue it anyway. "Just like the guy ... with the scotch," he explained.

The full one-hour interview between Trump and Von — which was apparently arranged in part by UFC president Dana White — can be viewed here.

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Weekend Read: At war with Drunkspeare



In many ways, Steven Pressfield means us to take the title of his invaluable book “The War of Art” literally. The process of artistic creation, as he sees it, involves persistent battle with a tireless and devious enemy: resistance.

Resistance is what we face whenever we find ourselves entertaining yet another reason not to follow our primal urge to sit down and write.

For Newlove, to drink was to take refuge in delusion, a destructive yet comforting haze inimical to true artistic creation.

One of resistance's primary weapons is fear, which Pressfield makes a point of addressing with blunt honesty: “The artist committing himself to his calling has volunteered for hell, whether he knows it or not. He will be dining for the duration on a diet of isolation, rejection, self-doubt, despair, ridicule, contempt, and humiliation.”

A successful novelist and screenwriter in his own right, Pressfield has dedicated much of his life to arming his fellow scribes with the tools and the courage they need to face this challenge head on.

Writing books isn't exactly digging ditches, as many a novelist as observed in a moment of faux-humility. True enough. But an undug ditch rarely inflicts the kind of psychological and emotional distress that the blank page does.

Like many writers, Donald Newlove (who died in 2021 at 93) attempted to ease the pain of creation by drinking. His prodigious efforts earned him a few unpublishable manuscripts (the work of his rarely-sober alter ego “Drunkspeare”) and years of crippling alcoholism.

When he finally did quit in his late thirties, Newlove found he had a lot to say about the effect of alcohol on his work and on the work of other writers. In 1981 he published “Those Drinking Days: Myself and Other Writers," re-released in 2022 by Tough Poets Press.

“Those Drinking Days” empathetically yet unsparingly dismantles persistent, romantic notions linking artistic inspiration and addiction. For Newlove, to drink was to take refuge in delusion, a destructive yet comforting haze inimical to true artistic creation.

Newlove diagnoses the same problem in many of his heroes, in a passage which any sad, young, literary man biding his time in a bar may find soberingly familiar:

“[T]hese writers toweringly resist and consistently fail to recognize home truths about themselves ... False allegiances abound: to culture and place of birth, to so-called social graces, to male bonding in war or sports or hunting, to ‘literature’ and the fellowship of dead drunks, and to living companions at their manly self-sacrifice to Old Ego-giant."

First lady of Oregon announces struggles with alcoholism, mental illness as accusations of nepotism swirl



The legal partner of Democrat Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek has announced that she is in recovery for addiction and mental illness amid questions about her growing influence in the governor's office.

On Tuesday, Oregon first lady Aimee Kotek Wilson, 47, admitted her struggles with alcoholism. "I share this information about myself now, and have in the past, in the hopes it will make a difference and reduce stigma," Wilson said in a statement. "Far too often, individuals have remained silent about their experience because of shame, pain, and fear. ... And, that is why it is so important for me to do my part to reduce the stigma around addiction and mental health."

Wilson has not indicated the nature of her mental illness or how long she has been in addiction recovery, Oregon Live reported.

Her announcement also comes in the wake of heavy criticism about her newly expanded role in the governor's office. Though technically working as an unpaid volunteer, Wilson was recently given a private office in what Willamette Week described as "the governor’s crowded suite of offices."

Wilson likewise accompanied Kotek on a recent international tour and spoke with mental-health practitioners. As part of her work, Wilson has been issued extra security detail as well, paid for out of Kotek's existing budget.

Gov. Kotek is even exploring the possibility of opening an official Office of the First Spouse and onboarded Meliah Masiba, previously of the Oregon Department of Administrative Services, earlier this week to serve as a short-term adviser in connection with it. Masiba will "also assist and support the current first spouse in her official capacity in support of the administration," according to a statement from governor spokesperson Elisabeth Shepard.

Masiba will remain as an adviser for six months and receive $72,000 for her work during that time. After the six months have expired, another individual will rotate into the position.

Though other states, including California and Maryland, already have an Office of the First Spouse, Oregonians may be leery of opening one in their state after a governor in recent memory was forced to resign at least in part because of his fiancée's influence-peddling.

In February 2015, just one month into his fourth term, Gov. John Kitzhaber (D) resigned after his fiancée, Cylvia Hayes, who attended official meetings and helped promote environmental policies, allegedly earned $118,000 in fellowships from environmental groups that had significant interest in the policies Hayes was promoting. There are also indications that Hayes failed to report that money on her tax filings. She eventually agreed to pay $44,000 in ethics violations.

No such allegations of financial impropriety have been made against Wilson, but three executive advisers will leave the governor's office in the next week or so, all reportedly on account of their strained relationships with Wilson.

Jeff Barker, a former Democratic lawmaker from Washington County, claimed he was "surprised" that Kotek would allow Wilson to wield so much influence in light of the Hayes scandal that plagued Kitzhaber's final years in office. "It looks too much like nepotism," Barker said.

"I can’t believe they are opening this can of worms," said another Democrat former lawmaker. "Very little upside and lots of downside."

On Monday, the Oregon Government Ethics Commission confirmed it had received a complaint about Kotek regarding Wilson's role as first lady. Details about the complaint have not been released.

"We will review and respond to any complaint upon receipt, consistent with Oregon state ethics laws," said Shepard, Kotek's spokesperson. "We have no further comment, as this is a pending complaint."

In a separate statement, Shepard claimed, "The governor makes all policy decisions on behalf of the office."

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The Biden Family Corruption Story Is More About Love Of Money Than Love Of Hunter

There is no evidence to suggest that Hunter's years-long addiction to illicit drugs bears any responsibility for his present legal crisis.

Alcohol-related deaths spiked in 2020 – killing more under-65 Americans than COVID



A new study revealed that alcohol-related deaths spiked in 2020 from the previous year.

The study conducted by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism found that there was a 25.5% increase in alcohol-related deaths in 2020 from 2019. Between 1999 and 2019, the average annual increase in alcohol-related deaths was 3.6%.

The study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association discovered that more adults under the age of 65 died from alcohol-related factors (74,408) than from COVID-19 (74,075) in 2020. There were a total of 99,017 alcohol-related deaths, which accounted for 3% of all deaths in 2020.

"Research suggests that alcohol consumption and related harms increased during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic," the authors of the study wrote. "Studies reported increases in drinking to cope with stress, transplants for alcohol-associated liver disease, and emergency department visits for alcohol withdrawal."

"The assumption is that there were lots of people who were in recovery and had reduced access to support that spring and relapsed," study author Aaron White told the New York Times.

"Stress is the primary factor in relapse, and there is no question there was a big increase in self-reported stress, and big increases in anxiety and depression, and planet-wide uncertainty about what was coming next," White explained. "That’s a lot of pressure on people who are trying to maintain recovery."

The sale of alcohol was up to its highest level in 18 years, according to the International Wines and Spirits Record (IWSR). Alcohol consumption in the U.S. increased by 2% in 2020, the largest year-over-year increase since 2002, according to the IWSR's annual Drinks Market Analysis.

"In fact, the IWSR has predicted that by the end of the year, alcohol volume sales in the US will be up by 3.8% year on year, while value sales will be up by 5.5%," the Drinks Business reported.

Online alcohol sales more than quadrupled from $441 million in 2019 to an estimated $1.87 billion in 2022, according to analysts at RaboResearch.

As TheBlaze previously reported, the top killer of Americans aged 18-45 in 2020 and 2021 was fentanyl overdose. More Americans in that age range reportedly died from fentanyl overdoses than any other cause of death, including suicide, car accidents, cancer, and COVID-19.

Fentanyl fatalities have nearly doubled from 32,754 deaths in April 2019 to 64,178 deaths in April 2021, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that was analyzed by opioid awareness organization Families Against Fentanyl.

The CDC's National Center for Health Statistics estimates that there were 100,306 drug overdose deaths in the U.S. between April 2020 and April 2021 – an increase of 28.5% from the 78,056 deaths during the same time period the year prior.