Why Donald Trump doesn’t like alcohol?

Despite the image Trump has cultivated of himself as an uber-wealthy playboy, the president is a proud teetotaller who says he has never had a drink, smoked cigarettes or consumed drugs.

US Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh uttered the word “beer” 29 times before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week.

“I liked beer,” the federal judge testified.

“I still like beer.”

But one person who does not like beer – and who does not admire Kavanaugh’s enthusiasm for the malt beverage – is the man who nominated him for the high court: US President Donald Trump.

“I don’t drink beer,” Trump told reporters Tuesday. “I’ve never had a beer. And I’m not saying good or bad, some people like it. I just choose not to do that for a lot of reasons.”

A day earlier, Trump told reporters that his abstinence from alcohol was “one of my only good traits”.

Though Trump has been defending Kavanaugh in public, he has told confidants in recent days that he did not like the focus on his nominee’s drinking habits, according to numerous advisers.

“The president doesn’t like drinking, and so Kavanaugh talking about how much he likes beer put Trump off,” said one person close to the White House who was briefed on the president’s private conversations and requested anonymity to discuss the president’s views.

“It’s not disqualifying or anything serious, but he doesn’t like drinkers.”

The image of Kavanaugh as a debaucherous fraternity brother is settling in.

On NBC’s Saturday Night Live – whose comedy sketches earn Trump’s notice, even as he claims to not watch them – actor Matt Damon portrayed Kavanaugh as addicted to “brewskis” and capped off his mock Senate testimony by shotgunning a can of beer.

For a high-profile chief executive, Trump is unusually uninhibited and unconstrained. In many aspects of his life, he creates chaos and, at times, careens out of control. But a rare area of self-discipline is his alcohol consumption – or lack thereof.

Despite the image Trump has cultivated of himself as an uber-wealthy playboy who used to party at New York’s legendary Studio 54, the president is a proud teetotaller who says he has never had a drink, smoked cigarettes or consumed drugs.

“Whenever they’re looking for something, I’m going to say, ‘I never had a glass of alcohol,’ ” Trump told reporters Monday.

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“Can you imagine, if I had, what a mess I’d be? Would I be the – I’d be the world’s worst.”

Long-time associates say Trump likes to have absolute control over his situation – always – and is afraid of losing his inhibitions. And they say he has a high level of disregard for those who do, viewing them as weak.

“One of the primary reasons I think Trump avoided alcohol was that he never wanted to be out of control,” said Tony Schwartz, co-author with Trump of The Art of the Deal, a 1987 bestseller.

“It made him feel weak and vulnerable in any circumstance where he felt that was the risk.”

But Trump’s views on alcohol also are inspired by the experience of his older brother, Fred, an airline pilot who struggled with alcoholism and died at age 43 in 1981.

“I think he’s scared of the effects alcohol can have on people because he witnessed first-hand how it destroyed his brother’s life, and I think he’s a teetotaller because he’s scared of it in himself,” said Tim O’Brien, author of the biography TrumpNation.

“He’s essentially Mr. Id, and if Mr. Id became an alcoholic, all bets are off.”

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Though Trump competed with Fred for their father’s attention and had a rocky relationship with his brother, the president has said one of the saddest moments of his life was Fred’s death.

“I had a brother, Fred. Great guy, best-looking guy, best personality – much better than mine,” Trump said last year at a White House event focused on the opioid crisis.

“What we’re trying to do is top it,” Trump enthused in a 2006 interview with CNN’s Larry King. The brand was discontinued in the United States in 2011.

Many on the president’s staff, as well as those who worked on his campaign, are also social drinkers who can often be found – beverage in hand – at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., or grabbing off-the-record drinks with reporters.

Among the notable exceptions is Vice-President Mike Pence, who has said he won’t attend events with alcohol without his wife by his side and who keeps Air Force Two free of alcohol.

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Speaking about Kavanaugh to reporters on Monday, Trump jokingly noted that there are “bad reports on everybody in here,” before specifically holding his vice-president apart.

“Except for Mike Pence, by the way,” Trump said.

“And if we find one on him … that’ll be the greatest shock of all time.”

Yet, in ways both overt and subtle, the president has made no secret of his disdain for alcohol and those who abuse it.

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