Trump suggests Biden was ‘higher than a kite’ on cocaine at State of the Union

Donald Trump has made the outrageous claim that President Joe Biden was on drugs when he delivered his barn-storming State of the Union address last month, without providing any evidence to substantiate the allegation.

The Republican presidential candidate, who will take on his successor in November in a rematch of the 2020 election contest, made the off-hand remark about the president’s performance at his 7 March address during an appearance on conservative radio show host Hugh Hewitt’s show on Thursday.

Asked by Mr Hewitt about his probable rival, Mr Trump said: “I think what happened is, you know, that white stuff that they happened to find, which happened to be cocaine in the White House, I don’t know, I think something’s going on there.

“I watched his State of the Union, and he was all jacked up at the beginning. By the end, he was fading fast. There’s something going on there.”

He continued: “I want to debate. And I think debates, with him, at least, should be drug tested. I want a drug test.”

Pressed by the host about whether he is insinuating that Mr Biden used cocaine, Mr Trump answered: “I don’t know what he’s using, but that was not, hey, he was higher than a kite.

“But he’s obviously, he’s being helped in some way, because most of the time, he looks like he’s falling asleep. And all of a sudden, he walked up there and did a poor job. But he was all jacked up.”

The Independent has reached out to Mr Biden’s campaign for comment.

The president’s Director of Rapid Response Ammar Moussa previously told Forbes that Mr Trump’s remark constituted “a bizarre outburst”.

The spokesman urged American voters to be “more concerned with Trump’s promise to deport millions of people and rip children away from their families and his deranged obsession to lie about losing the last election and undermine our democracy”.

He also suggested that Mr Trump’s campaign is “spiralling because their candidate’s toxic agenda continues to be a loser with voters”.

The two rivals have both been at pains to accuse each other of being too old and befuddled to run for office again, with Mr Trump, 77, insisting that Mr Biden, 81, is both battling senility and physical frailty while also orchestrating the many legal cases against him.

The president meanwhile went a long way towards dispelling the “Sleepy Joe” caricature and any suggestion that he is past his best with his vigorous performance at the State of the Union, where he argues passionately that his age is an asset not a disadvantage, sparred with Republicans in the audience and laid into Mr Trump’s record in acidic style.

By contrast, the Republican rebuttal, delivered with melodramatic intensity by Alabama Senator Katie Britt from behind her kitchen table, was widely ridiculed on social media and saw her forced to backtrack over the truth of an anecdote.