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Donald Trump will have a chance to leave a big imprint on the alcohol industry.
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On Friday, the Biden administration moved to expand the warning on alcoholic drinks to list cancer risks.
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Only Congress could force such a change, but how Trump will react remains to be seen.
Donald Trump once said that not drinking was “one of my only good traits.” President Joe Biden, a fellow teetotaler, and his administration have left the president-elect an opportunity to leave a lasting imprint on the billion-dollar beverage industry.
US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy on Friday released a bombshell report warning that alcohol consumption can increase cancer risk. Murthy also called for an expanded warning label on all alcoholic beverages that would include cancer risk, similar to the warning label on cigarettes.
Trump’s aversion to alcohol is well documented. He was once observed toasting his fellow world leaders with Diet Coke during his presidency. Trump has said that his brother Fred’s struggle with addiction led him to avoid drinking and smoking entirely. Fred Trump Jr. died in 1981 at the age of 42, the result of a heart attack attributed to alcoholism.
“I had a brother, Fred. Great guy, best-looking guy, best personality, much better than mine,” Trump said during a 2018 news conference. “But he had a problem. He had a problem with alcohol, and he would tell me, ‘Don’t drink. Don’t drink.’ He was substantially older, and I listened to him and I respected (him).”
It remains to be seen how Trump will move forward. A spokesperson for the Trump transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
The president-elect has generally opposed more stringent regulations. Trump’s first administration also rejected an advisory committee’s advice to urge men to cut back on alcohol consumption. Adding warning labels to alcoholic beverages would require congressional action, though Trump’s support of such a measure would likely influence a more obedient GOP.
Alcohol played a major role in one of the biggest stories from Trump’s first administration: the contested confirmation of now-Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Kavanaugh said during his Senate hearing that he “liked beer,” but bristled when Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota asked if he had a drinking problem.
“I watched him. I was surprised at how vocal he was about the fact that he likes beer,” Trump said at the time. “This is not a man that said that he was perfect with respect to alcohol.”
Trump was “extremely put off” by Kavanaugh’s comments about drinking, Mark Meadows, a former White House chief of staff, said in his book “The Chief’s Chief.”
The former Fox News host Pete Hegseth, Trump’s pick to lead the Pentagon, is also expected to face questions about his drinking during his confirmation hearings. Like Kavanaugh, Hegseth has faced allegations that his drinking habits fueled sexual misconduct. (Both men have strongly denied any wrongdoing.)
Trump has a personal stake in the discussion. His hotels and golf clubs all sell alcohol, and the Trump Organization owns a winery in Charlottesville, Virginia. And while Trump doesn’t drink, that didn’t stop him from once hawking his own vodka brand.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whom Trump has nominated to lead the Health and Human Services Department, also doesn’t drink. Kennedy has been sober for years after a highly publicized history with drugs, including a 1983 arrest for heroin possession.
There is a growing push among public-health groups for lawmakers to take a tougher approach to regulating alcohol. The industry routinely spends millions of dollars lobbying Congress.
Trump previously defended Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world’s largest beer company, when some of his closest allies and supporters urged a boycott of the company in response to its brief partnership with the transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
“Anheuser-Busch is a Great American Brand that perhaps deserves a Second Chance? What do you think?” Trump wrote on Truth Social in 2023.
At the time, Trump was preparing to attend a major GOP fundraiser hosted by a top Republican lobbyist for the beverage giant.
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