Cory Booker talks caffeine pills, Donald Trump, and ‘a better tomorrow’ ahead of Philly book tour visit

Sen. Cory Booker writes in his new book Stand that he experimented with caffeine pills a couple of days prior to his 25-hour record-breaking Senate floor speech before deciding to rely on his adrenaline instead.

The New Jersey Democrat and potential 2028 presidential contender, an avid coffee drinker, decided to forgo all beverages before and during his speech so he wouldn’t have to go to the bathroom (including water, to his doctor’s displeasure). So he picked up caffeine pills from CVS as an alternative, but after trying them and having a “weird Saturday,” he “quickly decided,” to go without, Booker writes in his new book, Stand.

“I just opened the bottle, poured a bunch in my hand, and popped them in my mouth, swallowed them, and then I just realized, like, I didn’t read anything about the dosage,” Booker told The Inquirer.

“So I basically swallowed the like, 10 cups of coffee worth of caffeine pills, and it was not a fun experience,” he added.

The caffeine experimentation is one of many personal anecdotes Booker tells in his fourth book, which came out this week. He’ll promote it with a sold-out event at the Free Library of Philadelphia Thursday evening between stops in his home city of Newark and St. Louis.

In that marathon speech, Booker mentioned “Trump” 270 times, according to a transcript from his office. But he only mentions the president’s name a handful of times in his new book.

In Stand, the senator seeks to provide a guidebook for Americans struggling with a nation in crisis. That crisis, he said, is much broader than the Republican president.

“Too many people want to make Donald Trump the main character of our story … He may be a symptom of the crisis, but we have a crisis of hope in the country, a crisis of belief in who we are,” Booker said in an interview ahead of his Thursday visit to Philly.

“The very American bargain, it seems to be slipping away from families … We need to redeem the dream of America,” he added.

The title of the book seems like a pretty obvious reference to the hours Booker spent standing on his feet to deliver the marathon speech last year, but he said the title goes beyond himself.

“It’s actually referencing what I want everyone to do,” he said. “Stand up for who we are collectively.”

He went on to share that one of his favorite quotes in the book is a question from a chaplain in the Union Army from New Jersey during the Civil War: “Are we a nation? Or, have we a government?”

“We stand for something together,“ Booker continued. ”We broke with the course of human events to create the first nation, not founded on religion or some monarchy, but founded on shared virtue.”

That’s the essence of his book — Booker draws from his personal experiences and connects them with stories of Americans he’s found inspiring, from President George Washington to Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. He organizes these stories by 10 virtues: agency, vulnerability, patriotism, truth, humility, community, creativity, perseverance, grace, and vision.

He wants readers to use the chapters as a guidebook, and flip to a virtue they’re struggling with to find direction. He said he wove together stories he believes the average American could relate to in a moment of crisis. He hopes they leave readers charged up, inspired, and with “practical instruction on how we fight and how we win.” (Vice President Kamala Harris used the slogan “When we fight, we win” for her unsuccessful 2024 presidential campaign.)

“Some of the stories in this book are about my own failings in certain moments,” he said, like a shouting match with his Newark political rival at a kids’ basketball game in 2005, as he was struggling with his mental health — a story he tells while grappling with models of masculinity.

Book tours tend to signal higher aspirations. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, for example, has been raising his national profile with a publicity swing for his own book.

Both Democrats, up for reelection this year, say they are focused on their current campaigns. But neither has ruled out highly speculated runs for president in 2028.

Booker already tried to run for president in the 2020 Democratic primary, but his campaign struggled to take off, and he dropped out of the race.

He’s maintained national financial support, raising more than nearly every candidate for Congress running in 2026, with money pouring in from states like California and New York, despite the lack of a serious challenger.

“I am a guy who is trying to get reelected in November, and that is my focus,” Booker said when asked if the book is foreshadowing a national run.

“But it is a book that’s speaking to the time we are in,” he added. “It helps us not just to stand up for who we are, but to make it to a better tomorrow.”