If reading about President Trump’s four-sandwich McDonald’s meal vicariously put you in a food coma, the following may require a trigger warning: His Mickey D’s feast — eaten Atkins-style without buns, apparently, but still washed down with a chocolate shake — is unhealthy, but clearly also occasional. Here’s an arguably more startling factoid about the man’s everyday diet: It involves a “dozen Diet Cokes.” That’s according to the New York Times, which interviewed 60 insiders for a long weekend dive into Trump’s daily routine and discovered that he puts away a 12-pack every day, in addition to cramming four to eight hours of TV in on the reg.
Trump’s Diet Coke habit is well-documented at this point (just not the frequency, up till now). America already knew about his Oval Office Resolute Desk button that he pushes to make staffers bring him a can. Photojournalists recently snapped pics of him drinking one with Japan’s prime minister Shinzo Abe, too.
And should you need reminding, he also once said this:
Twelve Diet Cokes contain far more than the daily recommended dose of caffeine; each 12-ounce can has 46 milligrams of caffeine — a total of 552 milligrams for a dozen. The FDA says that 400 milligrams is the max amount “not generally associated with dangerous, negative effects” in healthy adults. Any wonder he reportedly only gets five to six hours of sleep per night?
Diet Coke has no sugar, but the acid in it is also still bad for your teeth. Previous research has found horrifying similarities between meth and diet soda’s effects on teeth. “Serious tooth decay” has been observed in people who drink two liters of diet drinks per day.
As he’s made clear before, he’s pretty committed to this stuff no matter what.