'If I lose one brain cell, we're f***ed': What Trump said when Stephanie Grisham suggested he go vegan for charity because it 'screws with body chemistry'
Former President Donald Trump apparently thinks a meat-free diet impairs a person's cognitive function, ex-White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham claims in an excerpt from her new tell-all book published Friday.
He told her that switching to a vegan diet 'messes with your body chemistry' and feared it would make him lose 'brain cells.'
An excerpt of the book adapted in Politico details Trump's relatively calm first weeks of 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic threw the world into disarray.
A young boy had challenged Trump to go vegan in a series of ads across television channels and billboards in exchange for donating $1 million to US military 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,' Grisham writes.
She noted that 'he loved his steaks and cheeseburgers' but thought the 30-day window was doable.
'Trump’s response was swift, and his tone was suddenly very serious,' Grisham claims.
He said, 'No, no. It messes with your body chemistry, your brain...And if I lose even one brain cell, we're f**ked.'
Stephanie Grisham acknowledged the ex-president's love of meat but figured the offer to go vegan for 30 days was for a good cause
The details coincide with a 9-year-old's public campaign to get Trump to go vegan that began around December 2019.
A young activist from Florida who goes by Vegan Evan challenged Trump to take up a vegan diet in order to 'Make America Healthy Again.'
The nonprofit backing him was called Million Dollar Vegan, which offered to 'donate a million dollars to a charity of Trump's choice.'
The ex-president never responded to Evan publicly.
Trump's love of meat and fast food has been well documented. He's been known to enjoy well done steaks with ketchup, and other reports have noted his love of McDonald's quarter-pounders with cheese and a White House diet of meatloaf and ice cream.
Trump is known to enjoy fast food, particularly McDonald's burgers
In 2019 he celebrated the Clemson University Tigers NCAA team with 'great American food' to commemorate their victory - which included McDonalds, Wendy's and Domino's
In 2019 he was widely mocked for providing the Clemson University Tigers NCAA team with 'great American food' to celebrate their victory - which included McDonalds, Wendy's and Domino's served with formal White House silverware.
He ran into trouble over his diet a short while later in 2020, during a February trip to India. Vegetarian Prime Minister Modi was planning to serve a meat-free dinner.
One White House source told CNN at the time, 'I have never seen him eat a vegetable.'
Grisham's forthcoming book, 'I'll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw In the Trump White House,' claims Trump was initially hesitant to follow through on his planned trip.
A 9-year-old boy called Vegan Evan challenged Trump to switch to a meat-free died for a month
As the date drew closer first lady Melania Trump as well as senior officials grew concerned over the growing COVID-19 threat.
Trump, in a bad mood because of the Senate impeachment vote that had just occurred, told staff during a meeting: 'I don’t really want to go. It is a long trip for not even two days, and we’re dealing with COVID. I’ll explain to Modi that it isn’t a good time, and I will come later, in my second term.'
His son-in-law Jared Kushner, who Grisham called 'real' chief-of-staff rather than Mark Meadows, reportedly told him to tell Modi personally.
'This showed just how well Jared had his father-in-law’s number because, like the rest of us, he knew that the president had a hard time saying no to someone and that Modi would likely talk him into going,' she writes.
'To this day I don’t know why that trip was so important to Jared, or what, if anything, he got out of it.'
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