‘That’s down and dirty’: Trump talks cocaine with podcaster Theo Von

In a bizarre turn of events for the 2024 election cycle , Donald Trump sat down for an interview with Theo Von at his Bedminster club in New Jersey and quizzed the podcaster about, of all things, cocaine.

During the latest episode of This Past Weekend with Theo Von , which aired on his YouTube channel on Tuesday, the topic of addiction and alcoholism rates in the US came up, specifically the fentanyl crisis.

At one point in the discussion, the former president turned to asking Von about his own drug use, before peppering him with questions about cocaine use in general.

Trump asked the podcast host how he “got addicted.”

“Oh no I would just do cocaine,” replied Von.

“That’s down and dirty right?” questioned Trump, adding: “But you don’t anymore?”

“No, I don’t do it anymore man and I’m not doing it,” Von said.

With his interest clearly piqued, Trump quizzed Von further about whether cocaine is a “stronger up”.

“Is it too much? Too much to handle?” he asked.

“Some of the stuff started to get a real rattle in it too,” Von explained. “I don’t know where we were getting it from in this country but yeah it started to make me feel like I was a mechanic or something.”

Trump, who is famously teetotal, followed up by pushing Von onto the topic of alcohol. “So the thing you go back to then is alcohol – for the most part.”

“Well-that-what I want probably is cocaine but I know that if I have a drink it’ll be like, ‘okay, well I had a drink then I can do this,” said Von.

“Is cocaine a stronger...up?” Trump asked. “So you’re way up with cocaine more than anything else you can think of?”

This prompted an interesting and slightly enigmatic reply from Von, also known by his give name, Theodor Capitani von Kurnatowski III.

“Cocaine will turn you into a damn owl homie – you know what I'm saying,” he joked. “You'll be out on your own porch, you know. You'll be your own street lamp.”

His curiosity unsatisfied, Trump asked Von if that’s “a good feeling.”

“No, horrible,” came the response.

“It's a miserable feeling,” added Trump, just as Von expanded at the same time: “But you do it anyway.”

The bizarre discussion appears to have taken place around the same time as Trump’s press conference at his Bedminster club last week as he continues his campaign trail for the November election.

While Trump courts podcasters, his rival Kamala Harris is in Chicago for the Democratic National Convention, where she will become the party’s official nomination.