‘Awash with speed’: Report calls Trump White House a drug 'free-for-all'
President Donald Trump's White House was a "free-for-all," like the "Wild West," a Rolling Stone bombshell report reveals, "awash with speed," while some staffers were taking a highly-addictive controlled substance, the anti-anxiety medication Xanax, then washing it down with alcohol.
Citing a January Defense Department Inspector General's "report detailing how the White House Medical Unit during the Trump administration distributed controlled substances with scant oversight and even sloppier record keeping," Rolling Stone's Noah Shachtman and Asawin Suebsaeng report, investigators "repeatedly noted that the unit had ordered thousands and thousands of doses of the stimulant modafinil, which has been used by military pilots for decades to stay alert during long missions."
"According to interviews with four former senior administration officials and others with knowledge of the matter, the stimulant was routinely given to staffers who needed an energy boost after a late night, or just a pick-me-up to handle another day at a uniquely stressful job. As one of the former officials tells Rolling Stone, the White House at that time was 'awash in speed.'"
But not just speed.
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“It was kind of like the Wild West. Things were pretty loose. Whatever someone needs, we were going to fill this,” a knowledgeable source told Rolling Stone. The news site adds, "Xanax was also a popular, easy-to-get drug during the Trump years, three sources tell us."
Citing two sources, Rolling Stone reports, "senior staffers would repeatedly down Xanax with alcohol."
“You try working for him and not chasing pills with alcohol,” a former senior administration official told Rolling Stone.
On social media, Rolling Stone's Noah Shachtman noted how "Trump staffers on the edge would often pair Xanax with booze."
National security attorney Brad Moss observed: "These folks all had security clearances. Remember that."
Dr. Jackson, now U.S. Rep. Ronny Jackson, a Republican congressman from Texas, stepped down as Physician to the President in March of 2018. Trump nominated him to head Veterans Affairs that month, but his future as a cabinet secretary was scuttled after Senate Republicans and Democrats alike expressed concern over his ability and fitness, The Washington Post reported at the time.
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"Nearly every source interviewed for this story," Rolling Stone adds, "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."
"On a trip to Argentina in March 2016, one of those reports notes, Jackson’s 'intoxicated behavior in the middle of the night, pounding on [a female subordinate’s] hotel room door, screaming, yelling, and overall loud behavior in his hotel room exhibited less than exemplary workplace conduct while on official travel to provide medical care for the President.' The Pentagon interviewed 60 of Jackson’s former subordinates; 56 'experienced, saw, or heard about [him] yelling, screaming, cursing, or belittling subordinates.' During a six-week stretch in 2018, a Defense Department hotline received 12 complaints' about Jackson."
In April of 2018, CNN reported Dr. Jackson "was known as 'the candy man' inside the White House," according to U.S. Senator Jon Tester (D-MT).