Donald Trump is never one to back down from a challenge… unless it has anything to do with becoming a vegan, according to a new book from former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham.
In the book titled: “I’ll Take Your Questions Now,” Grisham recalls how Trump refused to go vegan for a month when challenged by a young boy because the former president bizarrely feared losing “even one brain cell.”
It was back in late 2019 when a 9-year-old activist named Vegan Evan put the challenge forward to Trump as part of a campaign to “Make America Healthy Again,” Insider reported.
“On another occasion around the new year (in 2020), a young boy started publicly challenging Trump to go vegan in TV ads and on highway billboards,” Grisham wrote, according to an excerpt published Friday by Politico.
“If the president agreed, the boy said, the charity he represented would donate $1 million to veterans. I was communications director at the time and I playfully asked the president if he would ever consider doing that, since the challenge would raise a lot of money for a good cause. I knew he loved his steaks and cheeseburgers, but one month didn’t seem that long.”
Well, one month proved too much for Trump who flat-out refused the offer in an answer that was “swift, and his tone was suddenly very serious,” Grisham recounted.
“No, no. It messes with your body chemistry, your brain,” Trump said, sharing his critical thoughts on veganism “And if I lose even one brain cell, we’re f*cked.”
It remains unclear how we would be “f*cked,” but if America’s leader at the time was this fragile, that’s a pretty worrying prospect.
Despite, Trump’s strange claim that veganism somehow damages the brain, “There’s little evidence to suggest that a vegetarian or vegan diet impairs brain function or increases the risk of cognitive decline,” according to the Scientific American.
In fact, the publication says that “lifelong vegetarians and vegans actually have a lower risk of dementia than meat-eaters.”
While Trump thinks veganism messes up our bodies, Vegan Evan disagrees entirely and believe the practice is “a gift.”
He said: “I think that veganism is a gift and it’s great to give that gift to people so they can be healthier and feel better, not hurt animals, and not destroy the planet.”
It’s no secret that Trump enjoys fast food, and reportedly drinks roughly 12 cans of Diet Coke every day, according to The New York Times. He even summons staff “via a button for lunch or one of the dozen Diet Cokes he consumes each day.”
“On Trump Force One there were four major food groups: McDonald’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken, pizza and Diet Coke,” according to a book written by former top campaign aides Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie.