--- description: Donald Trump accused Hillary Clinton of pandering to black voters in New York with her comment that she carries hot sauce everywhere title: Trump Doubts Clinton's Hot Sauce Love, Despite Evidence image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt533d503f06c1d80d/69888fc2196cf4c7b403b3fd/hillary-clinton-peppers.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Politics](/section/politics/) ## Politics Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Donald Trump Doubts Hillary Clinton's Hot Sauce Love, Despite Trail of Evidence  by [Katie Reilly](/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Apr 19, 2016 4:34 PM CUT  Hillary Clinton, former Secretary of State and 2016 Democratic presidential candidate, views a selection of peppers at a farmers market in Davenport, Iowa on Oct. 6, 2015. Hillary Clinton, former Secretary of State and 2016 Democratic presidential candidate, views a selection of peppers at a farmers market in Davenport, Iowa on Oct. 6, 2015.Daniel Acker—Bloomberg/Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Apr 19, 2016 4:34 PM CUT Republican frontrunner Donald Trump accused Hillary Clinton of pandering in [New York](http://time.com/4298768/frontrunners-clinton-and-donald-trump-prepare-for-victories-in-new-york/ "undefined") with her comment on Monday that she [carries hot sauce with her](http://time.com/4297996/hillary-clinton-hot-sauce/ "undefined") everywhere she goes. “It’s the same thing that she always does. She carries hot sauce like I carry hot sauce. It’s just, I don’t know, it’s just so phony and so pandering and so terrible,” Trump said during a Fox News interview on Tuesday morning. Trump’s doubts echoed the hosts of The Breakfast Club radio show where she made the admission Monday. “Now listen, I want you to know that people are going to see this and say ‘She’s pandering to black people,'” host Charlamagne Tha God told her. But the paper trail for Clinton’s love of hot sauce is long and eclectic. She said the same thing in a 2008 [interview with _60 Minutes_](http://www.cbsnews.com/news/hillary-clintons-run-for-the-white-house/ "undefined") and a January [interview with NPR](http://www.npr.org/2016/01/20/463748438/transcript-nprs-interview-with-hillary-rodham-clinton "undefined"), explaining that the practice began in 1992 while her husband was running for president, when she read about the beneficial effects of hot peppers on the immune system. “I thought, ‘well, that’s interesting,’ because — you know, campaigning is pretty demanding, and so I started — I’d always liked hot food — Mexican, Indian, Thai. But I started adding hot peppers, and then I got into eating them raw, wherever they weren’t really, really too hot,” she said. “I used to carry — you know, a little tiny bottle of Tabasco sauce to spice up the foods.” At the White House in the 1990s, Clinton also kept a collection of more than 100 hot sauces, according to [a December report by the Associated Press](http://bigstory.ap.org/article/a4438f34e95f41b2837b6053dbacf243/clinton-avoids-campaign-diet-pitfalls-hot-peppers-yoga "undefined"). And she told a Washington _Post_ reporter in a 1995 lunch interview that hot sauce is her [“secret passion.”](https://twitter.com/ryanbeckwith/status/722427152784891905 "undefined") In a [2012 interview](http://www.cntraveler.com/stories/2012-08-30/hillary-clinton-interview-visionaries "undefined") with _Conde Nast Traveler_, she said she always packed red pepper flakes and a mini bottle of Tabasco sauce when she traveled as Secretary of State. [_The Tabasco Cookbook_](https://books.google.com/books/about/The%5FTabasco%5FCookbook.html?id=waccAgAAQBAJ "undefined"), published in February, bragged about her habit of traveling with it. Her longstanding affection for the sauce has also been detailed in biographies. “As an adult, she liked jalapeños in her scrambled eggs and traveled with a bottle of Tabasco sauce in her purse,” Karen Blumenthal wrote in [_Hillary Rodham Clinton: A Woman Living History_](https://books.google.com/books/about/Hillary%5FRodham%5FClinton.html?id=-ulWrgEACAAJ "undefined"), which was published in January. “Aides revealed that she liked spicy foods and hot sauce, and was even known to carry around a little bottle of Tabasco sauce on her person,” Michael Tomasky wrote in [_Hillary’s Turn_](https://books.google.com/books/about/Hillary%5Fs%5FTurn.html?id=Mhp3AAAAMAAJ "undefined"), published in 2001. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4299124/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-hot-sauce/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4299124/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-hot-sauce/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Doubts Hillary Clinton's Hot Sauce Love, Despite Trail of Evidence","datePublished":"2016-04-19T16:34:43.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T16:51:47.446Z","description":"She's been talking about it for decades","url":"https://time.com/4299124/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-hot-sauce/","keywords":["Hillary Clinton","2016 Election topic","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt533d503f06c1d80d/69888fc2196cf4c7b403b3fd/hillary-clinton-peppers.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt533d503f06c1d80d/69888fc2196cf4c7b403b3fd/hillary-clinton-peppers.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Hillary Clinton Discusses Affordable Health Care in Iowa","caption":"Hillary Clinton Discusses Affordable Health Care in Iowa","creditText":"Daniel Acker—Bloomberg/Getty Images","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":"https://time.com/4299124/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-hot-sauce/","name":"Donald Trump Doubts Hillary Clinton's Hot Sauce Love, Despite Trail of Evidence"}}]}] ```