At the beginning of a Cabinet assembly simply after midday ET on Tuesday, President Donald Trump made his seemingly compulsory reference to “Sleepy Joe” Biden.
Then he assured he was “sharper than I was 25 years ago,” whereas rebuking The New York Times for a prolonged and detailed story final week laying out how the 79-year-old president appears to have slowed down throughout his second time period.
“Trump is sharp, but they’re not sharp,” Trump mentioned of the newspaper.
Trump chastised reporters for what he solid as unfair remedy when it comes to his well being and stamina, including, “You people are crazy.”
But over the subsequent hour and a half, Trump struggled to embody the sharpness and vigor he had simply laid declare to.
In truth, he appeared to wage a prolonged and often-losing battle with a noon nap. Even as his Cabinet was assembled to interact in one in all his favourite actions – singing the praises of Trump – he repeatedly appeared to doze off.
It was the sort of scene, actually, that Trump as soon as upon a time ridiculed as proof of a president’s lack of stamina and health for the job.
About quarter-hour after his broadside towards the well being and stamina reporting, Trump appeared to battle to hold his eyes open as Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick praised his commerce wars and hailed “the greatest Cabinet ever for the greatest president ever.”
Trump appears to shut his eyes as Lutnick speaks
Trump’s blinks appeared to get progressively slower as he heard from Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner after which from Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins. The battle grew much more actual when he heard from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin.
Trump’s eyes develop heavy as Bessent speaks
By the time Education Secretary Linda McMahon and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spoke, Trump appeared frozen together with his eyes closed for 10 to 15 seconds at a time, earlier than finally shifting his eyes or giving a nod.
Trump closes his eyes at occasions throughout Kennedy’s remarks
Just earlier than 1:45 p.m. ET, he gave Secretary of State Marco Rubio the identical remedy, as Rubio extolled Trump’s efforts to finish wars. Except this time Trump’s obvious dozing was extra pronounced as a result of he was seated proper subsequent to the secretary, and the cameras had been zoomed in on the 2 of them. (Previous audio system had been extra distant from Trump.)
At the tip of Rubio’s monologue, the secretary of state cracked a joke about how we’re now upon “the most wonderful, magical time of the year. And by that, of course, I’m referring to the College Football Playoff.”
If Trump heard the joke, he barely confirmed it.
Trump closes his eyes throughout Rubio’s remarks
Asked in regards to the scene on Tuesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt maintained Trump had been “listening attentively and running the entire three-hour marathon Cabinet meeting.” She praised him for holding 9 Cabinet conferences this yr and for an “exclamation point” reply throughout a Q&A when he attacked Democrats and Somali immigrants.
“In all of these historic meetings, the president and his incredible team highlight the exhaustive list of accomplishments they have delivered on behalf of the American people to Make America Great Again,” Leavitt mentioned.
It was the second time in lower than a month that Trump appeared to wage this very pronounced battle throughout a White House occasion. The final got here on November 6, within the Oval Office. After that one, the Washington Post reviewed a number of video feeds and calculated that Trump had spent almost 20 minutes fighting to keep his eyes open.
Images of Trump dozing off throughout that occasion – photographs even clearer than ones Tuesday due to the digicam angles out there within the Oval – soon went viral.
The level will not be {that a} 79-year-old man dozing off is an indication of a severe well being concern and even actually all that outstanding. As Leavitt famous, Trump did take a sequence of questions after Rubio spoke. And it’s indeniable that he’s made himself far more out there to the press than his predecessor. He additionally appeared to have a late night time and early morning forward of the Cabinet assembly, posting on Truth Social earlier than 5:30 a.m. after sharing posts on immigration, Venezuela and different matters shut to midnight. (Indeed, he had posted many dozens of occasions the night time earlier than.)
But these sorts of scenes are clearly turning into extra prevalent.
And as is usually the case, Trump has rendered himself a sufferer of the requirements he has set for the presidency. Not solely did he repeatedly label Biden “Sleepy Joe” due to Biden’s lack of exercise; he typically ragged on Biden for actually sleeping – and falling asleep on digicam.
Trump solid such a scene as unbecoming of a president and an indication of Biden’s disengagement, at the very least when the shoe was on the opposite foot.
In 2021, after Biden appeared to fall sleep at a local weather convention in Scotland, Trump mentioned in an e mail: “Nobody that has true enthusiasm and belief in a subject will ever fall asleep!”
Trump continued criticizing Biden on the topic in 2022 and 2023.
After Biden’s vibrant State of the Union in early 2024, Trump mentioned that “most of the time, he looks like he’s falling asleep.”
In June 2024, quickly earlier than Biden’s disastrous debate efficiency, Trump ridiculed the then-president for showing sleepy after abroad journey, saying, “He falls asleep at every single event.”
By late within the 2024 marketing campaign, Trump repeatedly introduced up Biden falling asleep on the seashore. Trump appeared to regard this as significantly unseemly and weird.
“How do you fall asleep when cameras are raging, right?” he mentioned at one level in September 2024.
He informed podcast host Andrew Schulz the identical month: “You’ll never see me sleeping in front of the camera.”
If falling asleep in conferences was an indication that Biden lacked “enthusiasm and belief,” why wouldn’t the identical normal apply to Trump?
Of course, when it comes to well being questions, context is vital. There isn’t any query that Biden introduced as far more aged than Trump does, and that these round Biden obscured his deterioration. Biden didn’t hold something approaching the schedule or public presence Trump does at this time, at the same time as Trump’s appearances and home journey, because the Times famous, have declined. (His overseas journey, nonetheless, has elevated thus far this time period.)
But Trump has additionally lengthy been opaque about his health, together with by releasing hyperbolic letters from his docs and resisting full disclosure about his medical visits as president – together with a recent MRI. (The White House this week did finally launch a abstract of his October medical imaging of his cardiovascular and belly programs – after the president claimed he didn’t even know what physique half it had been carried out on.)
During Trump’s first time period, Dr. Harold Bornstein, who’d written a glowing letter about his well being in 2015, mentioned that Trump had “dictated that whole letter.” The letter had implausibly claimed Trump can be “the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency,” regardless of his being shut to 70 years outdated on the time and famously averse to train.
Those sorts of issues are going to seed suspicions and legitimize investigations just like the Times’, particularly when the president reveals extra indicators of age.
Just like calling somebody “Sleepy Joe” advert nauseam goes to make it extra noticeable when Trump can’t appear to shake his personal sleepiness.