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Tag: President Donald Trump

  • "Apprentice" Contestant Claims Trump Snorted Adderall On Set

    "Apprentice" Contestant Claims Trump Snorted Adderall On Set

    Actor Tom Arnold took to Twitter to back up Celebrity Apprentice contestant Noel Casler’s allegations about Trump’s Adderall use.

    During a stand-up set earlier this month, comedian Noel Casler claimed President Donald Trump used to snort Adderall on the set of The Celebrity Apprentice.

    It’s not immediately clear that the comic actually worked on the show, but other comics – mostly ardent Trump opponents – quickly came to Casler’s defense on Twitter, calling him “professional” and “discreet.”

    The six-minute routine at the Gotham Comedy Club drew plenty of laughs on Dec. 1, but it didn’t start going viral until a few days later.

    “He’s a speed freak,” Casler told the crowd. “He crushes up his Adderall and he sniffs it, ’cause he can’t read, so he gets really nervous when he has to read cue cards. I’m not kidding. This is true.”

    He went on to describe a “24-page nondisclosure agreement” – then apparently dismiss it.

    “I didn’t know then he was becoming president,” he continued. “Now it’s, no way, dumbass. I’m telling you everything I know. So he gets nervous and he crushes up these pills, and that’s why he’s sniffing when you see him in debates and when you see him reading. It’s why he’s tweeting, you know, it’s like he’s out of his mind.”

    Riffing on the allegations, he continued.

    “It makes sense if you think about it,” he said, “methamphetamine was invented by the Nazis to keep the fighter pilots up all night on bombing runs, so it makes sense that Trump would use it to hate-tweet.”

    When HillReporter.com followed up to ask whether Casler was serious, he reportedly said he wouldn’t discuss his work off-stage or on the record.

    But actor Tom Arnold took to Twitter both to declare the statement accurate and to imply that the whole skit may have been a way to get around the alleged NDA.

    “Because First Amendment Mark Burnett MGM & Donald Trump cannot hold a stand up comic performing onstage in public to their BS 10 year $5 million NDA,” he wrote. “Finally figured out a way to tell these true stories. Tapes too. Noel Casler, American Hero. Funnyman with impeccable credentials.”

    It’s not the first time a comment about Trump’s alleged drug use has drawn widespread attention. Back before the 2016 election, former presidential candidate Howard Dean dinged Trump for sniffling his way through his first face-off with Hillary Clinton.

    “Notice Trump sniffing all the time. Coke user?” he tweeted. A few days later, Dean apologized.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Trump Calls For China To Use Death Penalty For Fentanyl "Pushers"

    Trump Calls For China To Use Death Penalty For Fentanyl "Pushers"

    “If China cracks down on this ‘horror drug,’ using the death penalty for [fentanyl] distributors and pushers, the results will be incredible!” Trump said on Twitter.

    President Trump said that one of the highlights of his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping is that fentanyl will now be classified as a controlled substance in China, meaning that people who manufacture and distribute the drug could face the death penalty. 

    “One of the very exciting things to come out of my meeting with President Xi of China is his promise to me to criminalize the sale of deadly fentanyl coming into the United States. It will now be considered a ‘controlled substance.’ This could be a game changer on what is […] considered to be the worst and most dangerous, addictive and deadly substance of them all,” Trump tweeted, according to CNN.”Last year over 77,000 people died from Fentanyl. If China cracks down on this ‘horror drug,’ using the Death Penalty for distributors and pushers, the results will be incredible!”

    A release from The White House called the reclassification of fentanyl “a wonderful humanitarian gesture.”

    “President Xi… has agreed to designate Fentanyl as a Controlled Substance, meaning that people selling Fentanyl to the United States will be subject to China’s maximum penalty under the law,” the release said. 

    In China, the maximum penalty is death, CNN reported. 

    President Trump has in the past praised capital punishment for people who traffic and sell drugs. 

    “He often jokes about killing drug dealers… He’ll say, ‘You know the Chinese and Filipinos don’t have a drug problem. They just kill them,’” a senior White House official said in February. 

    Another source confirmed that. 

    “[Trump] says that a lot,” the source said. “He says, ‘When I ask the prime minister of Singapore do they have a drug problem [the prime minister replies,] ‘No. Death penalty.’” 

    While he was campaigning, Trump told a crowd in New Hampshire, a state that has been heavily affected by opioid abuse, that the death penalty should be considered. 

    “If we don’t get tough on the drug dealers, we are wasting our time,” he said. “And that toughness includes the death penalty.”

    Trump justified this position by saying dealers “will kill thousands of people during their lifetime” but won’t be punished for these deaths. He said the death penalty would only be used against the “big pushers, the ones who are really killing people.”

    Trump has also congratulated Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte for his anti-drug campaign that involved killing thousands of people. 

    “I just wanted to congratulate you because I am hearing of the unbelievable job on the drug problem,” Trump said to Duterte in a phone call in 2017. “Many countries have the problem, we have a problem, but what a great job you are doing and I just wanted to call and tell you that.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Anthony Scaramucci Thinks Trump Will Legalize Marijuana

    Anthony Scaramucci Thinks Trump Will Legalize Marijuana

    During a recent interview, Scaramucci discussed how Trump may change his stance on legalization in the near future. 

    Anthony Scaramucci is predicting a greener future under the Trump administration. 

    Specifically, that is, he thinks the president will legalize marijuana during his last two years in office. 

    The former White House communications director offered his pro-pot prediction during a half-hour YouTube interview with Succeed.com founder Charles Peralo.

    In the final minutes of the interview, which tackled everything from entrepreneurship to immigration to trade, Peralo lobbed a quick question about the odds of seeing Trump change his stance on marijuana legalization—and The Mooch responded without pause.

    “I do. I think he’s going to legalize marijuana,” he said. “I think he’s waiting for after the midterms. I think he’s on the side of legalization. I think the attorney general probably wasn’t but I think the president is.”

    The reference to stridently anti-marijuana Attorney General Jeff Sessions in the past tense prompted a follow-up. “He’s on his way out most likely?” Peralo asked.

    “Yeah, I think he is,” Scaramucci responded. “Well I don’t wanna speak about that because anything happens in the Trump world.”

    It’s not clear, as Marijuana Moment pointed out, whether Scaramucci’s prediction is based on gut feeling or insider knowledge—but he’s not the only politico highlighting the possibility of pot reform.

    U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher told Fox Business that the president made a “solid commitment” to addressing pot legalization after the Nov. 6 elections. 

    “I have been talking to people inside the White House who know and inside the president’s entourage,” Rohrabacher told the TV network. “I have talked to them at length. I have been reassured that the president intends on keeping his campaign promise.”

    The idea, Rohrabacher said, would be to greenlight medical marijuana on a federal level and leave individual states to decide on the legality of recreational pot.

    “I would expect after the election we will sit down and we’ll start hammering out something that is specific and real,” the Congressman added.

    To some, marijuana reform seems like a political necessity for the president. Conservative blog Hot Air predicted that any failure to approve pot could turn into a Democratic talking point against Trump in 2020. 

    “He could short-circuit that by getting out in front of the issue,” the website predicted. “Any other Republican president might expect blowback from seniors and evangelicals for making a move like that, but Trump isn’t ‘any other Republican president.’”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Trump To Jeff Sessions: Sue Drug Companies For Opioid Crisis Role

    Trump To Jeff Sessions: Sue Drug Companies For Opioid Crisis Role

    The Attorney General said he would take action on Trump’s requests. 

    President Donald Trump has instructed Attorney General Jeff Sessions to file a federal lawsuit against pharmaceutical companies in Mexico and China, claiming that they have played a role in the US opioid epidemic.

    Last week, according to the New York Post, the president threw blame at China and Mexico for their roles in the opioid epidemic, claiming the countries had manufactured some of the illegal opioids coming into the United States.

    “In China, you have some pretty big companies sending that garbage and killing our people. It’s almost like a form of warfare. I’d like you to do what you can legally,” Trump said to Sessions.

    Fox News reports that Trump’s remarks came during a Cabinet meeting on Thursday, Aug. 16. Fox notes it was somewhat unusual that Trump asked for a new “major” lawsuit to be filed, rather than asking Sessions to join existing lawsuits filed by various US states. 

    “I’d also like to ask you to bring a major lawsuit against the drug companies on opioids,” Trump stated at the meeting, according to Fox. “Some states have done it, but I’d like a lawsuit to be brought against these companies that are really sending opioids at a level that — it really shouldn’t be happening. … People go into a hospital with a broken arm, they come out, they’re a drug addict.”

    Sessions said he would take action on Trump’s requests. 

    “We absolutely will,” Sessions said at the meeting. “We are returning indictments now against distributors from China; we’ve identified certain companies that are moving drugs from China, fentanyl in particular. We have confronted China about it … Most of it is going to Mexico and then crossing the border, unlawfully, from Mexico.”

    As of now, more than 25 US states have filed more than 1,000 lawsuits against opioid distributors and manufacturers.

    Last week, New York filed a lawsuit against Purdue Pharma, stating the manufacturer of the painkiller OxyContin has mislead medical professionals and patients about the dangers of the medication. Massachusetts also filed a lawsuit against the company in June, accusing the company of a “web of illegal deceit.” 

    According to recent estimates, overall overdose deaths in the US in 2017 were about 72,000 — an increase of 6,000 from 2016’s estimates.

    However, preliminary 2018 data implies that the “numbers may be trending downward in the wake of the Trump administration’s efforts to curb the epidemic.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Elizabeth Warren Questions Trump's Response To Opioid Crisis

    Elizabeth Warren Questions Trump's Response To Opioid Crisis

    “You pledged that ‘we will be spending the most money ever on the opioid crisis.’ Yet your claim appears to have no basis in reality.” 

    Senator Elizabeth Warren is not impressed with President Donald Trump’s lack of action when it comes to the opioid crisis—and she is making that known.

    According to Vox, the senator (D-MA) wrote a letter to Trump recently, expressing her concern.

    “Experts and observers have concluded that your efforts to address the opioid crisis are ‘pathetic’ and ‘ambiguous promises’ that are ‘falling far short of what is needed’ and are ‘not… addressing the epidemic with the urgency it demands,’” she wrote. “I agree, and I urge you to move quickly to address these problems.”

    In her letter, Warren highlights the fact that while campaigning and while in office, Trump has made promises to take action. In October, he declared the opioid epidemic a national public health emergency—a declaration that has been renewed twice since, according to Vox.

    Next week, it’s due to be renewed for a third time. 

    “Six months after you first declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency, you pledged that ‘we will be spending the most money ever on the opioid crisis,’” Warren wrote. “Yet your claim appears to have no basis in reality. While the U.S. Senate reached a budget agreement earlier this year to spend an additional $6 billion over two years to address the opioid crisis, your Administration’s own proposals to address the opioid crisis, including your most recent opioid initiative policies released on March 19th, lack commitments of federal funds.”

    Warren goes on to ask Trump to expand on how his administration is taking action and whether the public health emergency declaration will be extended.

    “Despite multiple calls to action from public health advocates and families whose loved ones have been devastated by the ongoing opioid crisis, your Administration is failing to implement aggressive and necessary measures to combat this epidemic,” she wrote. “Efforts by state and local governments and communities to address this crisis require support, meaningful action, and resources from the federal government.”

    Warren concluded by asking Trump to respond to her letter, as well as a number of questions, by  July 23, 2018.

    Warren isn’t the only one taking action and voicing concern, Vox notes. In fact, Warren teamed up with Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) to introduce a bill that would allocate $100 billion to the opioid epidemic over the next decade.

    Other senators are also questioning the president’s lack of action. In January,  Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) and other democrats in the senate requested a Government Accountability Office investigation into Trump’s actions when it comes to the crisis.

    In April, they sent an additional letter.

    According to Vox, Warren says her letter and questions have not yet been addressed.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Link Between Trump Support And Opioid Use Revealed In New Study

    Link Between Trump Support And Opioid Use Revealed In New Study

    “When we look at the two maps, there was a clear overlap between counties that had high opioid use … and the vote for Donald Trump,” said the study’s author.

    There may be a geographic connection between those who supported Trump in the 2016 election and prescriptions for opioids, according to a new study published in the medical journal JAMA Network Open. 

    James S. Goodwin, chair of geriatrics at the University of Texas Medical Branch and the study’s lead author, along with other researchers, examined data from numerous sources which included the Census Bureau and the 2016 election, as well as data from Medicare Part D, a program for prescription drugs that helps those with disabilities and the elderly.

    “When we look at the two maps, there was a clear overlap between counties that had high opioid use… and the vote for Donald Trump,” Goodwin told NPR. “There were blogs from various people saying there was this overlap. But we had national data.”

    In order to estimate the amount of opioid use by county, Goodwin and his team utilized the number of Medicare Part D enrollees who had three months or more worth of opioid prescriptions. According to Goodwin, it was harder to estimate the amount of illegal opioid use, though prescription opioid use is strongly correlated with it.

    “There are very inexact ways of measuring illegal opioid use,” Goodwin told NPR. “All we can really measure with precision is legal opioid use.”

    In the research process, the team looked at a number of factors to determine how a county’s rate of chronic opioid prescriptions was influenced. They found that in the 2016 election, Trump support was closely tied to opioid prescriptions. In counties with higher-than-average numbers of chronic opioid prescriptions, 60% of those who voted did so for Trump whereas in counties with lower-than-average prescriptions, only 39% voted for him. 

    NPR also states that some of the correlation could have to do with social and economic factors, as many rural counties with struggling economies voted for Trump, and those are the areas where opioid use is common. 

    “As a result, opioid use and support for Trump might not be directly related, but rather two symptoms of the same problem—a lack of economic opportunity,” NPR noted. 

    Goodwin and his team also analyzed factors such as unemployment rate, median income, how rural areas were, education level and religious service attendance. They found that these factors account for about 66% of the connection between Trump voters and opioid use, but not the remaining percentage.

    “It very well may be that if you’re in a county that is dissolving because of opioids, you’re looking around and you’re seeing ruin. That can lead to a sense of despair,” Goodwin told NPR. “You want something different. You want radical change.”

    For some areas hit hard by the opioid crisis, NPR states, the Trump presidency may have seemed like a solution. 

    While the study shows a likely link, it isn’t definitive and has shortcomings, Goodwin states. 

    “We were not implying causality, that the Trump vote caused opioids or that opioids caused the Trump vote,” he cautions. “We’re talking about associations.”

    View the original article at thefix.com