Maybe coke was a bad guess. Could it be COPD instead?

[Stinky The Clown]

He often seems out of breath when he speaks.

In any case, he sounds "off" somehow. Not talking about substance, but about his physical person.

[jberryhill]

1. Pickwickian Syndrome

Look it up. It's actually a thing.

[Stinky The Clown]

4. Pickwickian Syndrome

Obesity hypoventilation syndrome (also known as Pickwickian syndrome) is a condition in which severely overweight people fail to breathe rapidly enough or deeply enough, resulting in low blood oxygen levels and high blood carbon dioxide (CO2) levels.

[Warpy]

7. That would mostly be at night and I'd bet on it.

Although he was sniffing like a 1980s coke head, my best guess is allergies. He didn't have a predictable crash 20 minutes in.

[unblock]

8. did not sound like allergies to me. no phlegm. very dry sniffling.

pseudoephedrine might explain it. he had a cold (or pneumonia?!) and took a strong decongestant (can't look presidential dripping or blowing your nose). but sniffling can quickly become a habit when you're sick even when your nose is dry.

that could explain the meth-head behavior as well, though that's so close to his normal personality, it's hard to say for sure.

he sounded more congested when he called in to foxnews the next day.

[Stinky The Clown]

10. He always has a nasally quality in his voice

Also, the sniffling is nothing new. Just seemed more pronounced in this debate.

[Dorian Gray]

19. I get allergies

and I get a dry cough/etc. If it's minor, he wouldn't necessarily be dripping with phlegm.

Regardless, so much is made of Hillary and her health, and other than here at DU, I haven't heard much of his constant sniffing.

[KewlKat]

2. congestive heart failure?

[RKP5637]

3. I noticed in the video sometimes the action of his hand was peculiar as he took a drink of

water. Guess the beginning of a tremor of sorts. If one was just looking at the debate, not knowing anything about it, Hillary was clearly the healthy one. Trump looked old, tired, overweight and seemed to have some strange mental aberrations going on, as well as his sniffles and runny nose. At minimal, he exhibited some strange physical behavior, and then his mental delusions.

[phallon]

5. Residual damage to heavy snorting during

70's, 80's, and I'm sure the 90's.

[FuzzyRabbit]

14. He did hang out frequently at Studio 54 while it was open (1977 - 1984).

His aggressive behavior (rudeness, talking over Clinton and Lester Holt, extremely fast talking, filibustering) reminded me of a coke user's behavior during the 1980s. Where I worked we had a customer who behaved like this. One day we discovered she was a frequent user of cocaine.

[rumdude]

6. I suspect he might be using legally-prescribed stimulants

Idoubt he would snort them; thus, it wouldn't account for the sniffling.

But it would explain his rambling speaking style and his manner of jumping rapidly from one subject to the next.

[unblock]

12. yeah i was thinking pseudoephedrine but anything in that class

including, hell, why not, straight-up meth. it's a helluva drug.

[BainsBane]

9. No, my Dad had that

It was nothing like what Trump displayed. Could have just been hayfever.

[Stinky The Clown]

11. Ive always noticed him sniffling, but last night was over the top.

[phallon]

17. Same. I was wondering when media would finally comment

Not no negatives on trump till he blew himself up

[Midnight Writer]

13. It was vascular reaction to stress or excitement

When you are stressed or excited, your body reacts by expanding your arteries and pumping more blood to areas you may need it in case of a physical exertion.

Sexual excitement sends blood to your...whatever.

Trump was "pumped up" for a fight, a confrontation, a challenge. So his body responded by pumping blood to his airways, his heart, his muscles. Extra blood to the nasal passages and throat causes irritation and swelling and results in mucous formation. The need for more oxygen in the blood, coupled with constriction of the airway, necessitates deeper breaths. This often results in sniffling, sneezing, heavy breathing, and chuffing (a guttural noise that signals aggression).

In other words, Trump "choked". Actually choked.

[octoberlib]

15. Well, there's this

Rumors of Trump’s predilection for stimulants first started really popping up in 1992, when Spy magazine wrote, “Have you ever wondered why Donald Trump has acted so erratically at times, full of manic energy, paranoid, garrulous? Well, he was a patient of Dr. [Joseph] Greenberg’s from 1982 to 1985.” At the time, Dr. Greenberg was notorious for allegedly doling out prescription stimulants to anyone who could pay.

In 1993, Harry Hurt’s unauthorized biography on Trump, Lost Tycoon, corroborated the rumors and went one step further: The diet drugs, which [Trump] took in pill form, not only curbed his appetite but gave him a feeling of euphoria and unlimited energy. The medical literature warned that some potentially dangerous side effects could result from long-term usage; they included anxiety, insomnia, and delusions of grandeur. According to several Trump Organization insiders, Donald exhibited all these ominous symptoms of diet drug usage, and then some.

These rumors say Trump stopped seeing Dr. Greenberg decades ago. But according to our source, the Donald Trump of today is on a diet drug called phentermine—and has been since at least April of 2014 . http://gawker.com/rumor-doctor-prescribes-donald-trump-cheap-speed-1782901680


Noah Shachtman of the Daily Beast and Daniel H. Berger formerly of MSNBC both tweeted that Trump snorted Adderall.

Noah Shachtman ✔ @NoahShachtman
No, Howard. He's on adderall.

danielhberger @danielhberger
Trump snorted too much adderall!!! #TrumpSniffle

Who knows? But my dad had COPD and I never heard sniffling like that.

[canetoad]

16. This is an old article

About an even older story. Trump was prescribed Tenuate Dospan, a slimming pill with ampethamine-like qualities.

So, what’s going on with the big guy inside of the Trump Tower? In 1992, “Spy” magazine did an expose on Dr. Joseph Greenberg. The good doctor was an amphetamine pill mill for the rich and famous, and who is richer or more famous than the Donald?

Greenberg treated Trump from 1982 to 1985. Apparently, both of the Trump boys went to him for “metabolic imbalances.” Basically, Trump was terrified of gaining weight. So the doctor prescribed a so-called miracle drug Tenuate Dospan.

So what does the National Institute Of Health (NIH) have to say about this little miracle worker, which is no longer on the market?

The drug can cause:
‘…Seeing, hearing, or feeling things that are not there, severe mental changes, depression, slurred speech, the inability to speak, confusion, nervousness…[and it is] “habit-forming.’

http://bipartisanreport.com/2016/02/12/hopped-up-donald-trump-exposed-for-using-this-substance-which-explains-his-erratic-behavior/

[lillypaddle]

18. I have COPD

I don't sniff.

[madokie]

20. I have COPD

and trust me when I type this. I never sound like donald tRump, ever

He's just a blowhard pissant