--- title: Donald Trump Suggests Hillary Clinton Used Drugs in Debate description: Republican presidential nominee fired off his latest salvo against Democratic rival Saturday, suggesting Hillary Clinton was under the influence of drugs during the last debate canonical: https://time.com/4532465/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-drug-test-debate/ author: Zeke Miller article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-15T17:13:18.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:45:28.119Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump Suggests Hillary Clinton Used Drugs in Last Debate og:description: Trump said that he and Clinton should undergo drug tests before the final debate og:url: https://time.com/4532465/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-drug-test-debate/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6b88e52381bbaae4/6988aa1e5f570f5ccab22e5e/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-second-debate.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: donald-trump-hillary-clinton-second-debate og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump Suggests Hillary Clinton Used Drugs in Last Debate twitter:description: Trump said that he and Clinton should undergo drug tests before the final debate twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6b88e52381bbaae4/6988aa1e5f570f5ccab22e5e/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-second-debate.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Suggests Hillary Clinton Used Drugs in Last Debate > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Oct 15, 2016 5:13 PM UTC  Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks during the second debate as Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton listens at Washington University in St. Louis on Oct. 9, 2016. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks during the second debate as Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton listens at Washington University in St. Louis on Oct. 9, 2016. John Locher—AP by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Oct 15, 2016 5:13 PM UTC Republican presidential nominee [Donald Trump](http://time.com/4532181/donald-trump-north-carolina-accusers-speech-transcript/) fired off his latest salvo against Democratic rival Saturday, suggesting [Hillary Clinton](http://time.com/4531229/hillary-clinton-does-not-recall-email-server/) was under the influence of drugs during the [last debate](http://time.com/4531129/hillary-clinton-ellen-degeneres-donald-trump-debate/). Offered without evidence during a campaign rally in Portsmouth, N.H., Trump said that he and Clinton are “like athletes” and should undergo drug tests before the final debate on Wednesday. “We’re like athletes,” he said. “So athletes…they make them take a drug test. I think we should take a drug test prior to the debate,” he continued, adding, “Because, I don’t know what’s going on with her.” He added that he would submit to such a test. Speaking of Clinton’s performance in Sunday’s debate in St. Louis, Trump claimed her performance was uneven and suggested she was under the influence of some sort of substance. “She was all pumped up at the beginning and at the end, it was like, ‘take me down,'” Trump said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4532465/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-drug-test-debate/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4532465/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-drug-test-debate/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Suggests Hillary Clinton Used Drugs in Last Debate","datePublished":"2016-10-15T17:13:18.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:45:28.119Z","description":"Trump said that he and Clinton should undergo drug tests before the final debate","url":"https://time.com/4532465/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-drug-test-debate/","keywords":["Donald Trump","2016 Election"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6b88e52381bbaae4/6988aa1e5f570f5ccab22e5e/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-second-debate.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Zeke Miller","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6b88e52381bbaae4/6988aa1e5f570f5ccab22e5e/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-second-debate.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"donald-trump-hillary-clinton-second-debate","caption":"Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks during the second debate as Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton listens at Washington University in St. Louis on Oct. 9, 2016.","creditText":"John Locher—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4532465/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-drug-test-debate/","name":"Donald Trump Suggests Hillary Clinton Used Drugs in Last Debate"}}]}] ```