“The president doesn’t like drinking, and so Kavanaugh talking about how much he likes beer put Trump off,” said one person close to the White House who was briefed on the president’s private conversations and spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the president’s views. “It’s not disqualifying or anything serious, but he doesn’t like drinkers.”…

“One of the primary reasons I think Trump avoided alcohol was that he never wanted to be out of control,” said Tony Schwartz, co-author with Trump of “The Art of the Deal,” a 1987 bestseller. “It made him feel weak and vulnerable in any circumstance where he felt that was the risk.”

But Trump’s views on alcohol also are inspired by the experience of his older brother, Fred, an airline pilot who struggled with alcoholism and died at age 43 in 1981.

“I think he’s scared of the effects alcohol can have on people because he witnessed firsthand how it destroyed his brother’s life, and I think he’s a teetotaler because he’s scared of it in himself,” said Tim O’Brien, author of the biography “TrumpNation.” “He’s essentially Mr. Id, and if Mr. Id became an alcoholic, all bets are off.”