‘There was no sniffles,’ Trump says after debate

Was Donald Trump sniffling throughout his first presidential showdown with Hillary Clinton Monday night? Absolutely not, so the candidate said Tuesday morning.

“I have no allergies. No cold,” Trump said on “Fox & Friends.”

“There was no sniffles,” he said.

Trump has recently attacked Hillary Clinton’s health, using his Democratic rival’s recent bout of pneumonia to question whether she has the “stamina” to be president.

But on Monday night, it was the Republican presidential nominee who roused suspicion — and plenty of jokes — from the online peanut gallery, which couldn’t help but notice the apparent sounds of congestion coming from Trump’s mic throughout the debate.

Before long, #TrumpSniffles was trending on Twitter, and the tweets continued well into the morning after.

The candidate’s noticeably heavy breathing even inspired a few parody accounts, like @TrumpSinuses and @TrumpSniff, which had accumulated well over 3,000 followers by midday Tuesday.

Trump attempted to put the sniffles debate to rest during his Fox News interview.

“No sniffles, no,” he told the hosts, arguing that his microphone was simultaneously “very bad” and possibly “good enough to hear breathing.”

Other presidential debates have also featured candidates’ distracting tics. During a 1992 debate, President George H.W. Bush infamously checked his watch while an audience member asked him a question about the national debt.

On Monday night, Trump drew the most comparisons to Al Gore, whose performance during an October 2000 debate with George W. Bush is still remembered for incessant sighs and looks of exasperation.