diff --git a/lib/repl.js b/lib/repl.js
index 763e283816bb64..4104c7f1433016 100644
--- a/lib/repl.js
+++ b/lib/repl.js
@@ -272,7 +272,7 @@ function REPLServer(prompt,
     if (self._inTemplateLiteral) {
       self._inTemplateLiteral = false;
     } else {
-      cmd = trimWhitespace(cmd);
+      cmd = cmd.trim();
     }
 
     // Check to see if a REPL keyword was used. If it returns true,
@@ -944,18 +944,6 @@ function defineDefaultCommands(repl) {
   });
 }
 
-
-function trimWhitespace(cmd) {
-  const trimmer = /^\s*(.+)\s*$/m;
-  var matches = trimmer.exec(cmd);
-
-  if (matches && matches.length === 2) {
-    return matches[1];
-  }
-  return '';
-}
-
-
 function regexpEscape(s) {
   return s.replace(/[-[\]{}()*+?.,\\^$|#\s]/g, '\\$&');
 }
diff --git a/test/fixtures/repl-load.js b/test/fixtures/repl-load.js
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..4dca31f60d561e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/fixtures/repl-load.js
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+module.exports = 'repl';
diff --git a/test/parallel/test-repl.js b/test/parallel/test-repl.js
index 6911c591505fef..28591e0d62d5ce 100644
--- a/test/parallel/test-repl.js
+++ b/test/parallel/test-repl.js
@@ -189,7 +189,13 @@ function error_test() {
     { client: client_unix, send: 'url.format("http://google.com")',
       expect: 'http://google.com/' },
     { client: client_unix, send: 'var path = 42; path',
-      expect: '42' }
+      expect: '42' },
+    // making sure that the fixed trim logic works fine
+    { client: client_unix, send: '    \t  .break \t \t  ',
+      expect: prompt_unix },
+    { client: client_unix, send: '.load ' +
+              require('path').join(common.fixturesDir, 'repl-load.js     \t   '),
+      expect: prompt_unix + '\'repl\'\n' + prompt_unix },
   ]);
 }