At the start of a Cabinet meeting later Tuesday afternoon ET, President Donald Trump referred to “Sleepy Joe” Biden as one of his essentials.
He then assured that he was “sharper than he was 25 years ago,” reprimanding The New York Times for a long and detailed story last week about how the 79-year-old president appears to be slowing down during his second term.
“Trump is sharp, but they’re not sharp,” Trump said of the newspaper.
“You guys are nuts,” Trump chided reporters for allegedly being unfair when it came to his health and stamina.
But over the next hour and a half, Trump struggled to embody the sharpness and passion he had just claimed.
In fact, he seemed to be fighting a long and often losing battle with his afternoon sleep. Even as his cabinet gathered to engage in one of his favorite activities — singing Trump’s praises — he was frequently seen dozing off.
It was the kind of sight, in fact, that Trump once derided as evidence of a lack of stamina and fitness for the job of president.
About 15 minutes after his broadside against health and stamina reporting, Trump appeared to be struggling to keep his eyes open as Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick praised his trade war and “the greatest cabinet ever for a great president.”
After hearing from Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner and then Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, Trump’s blinkers appeared to be slowing down. The struggle became more real after hearing from Treasury Secretary Scott Besant, Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-Deremer and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin.
As Education Secretary Linda McMahon and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spoke, Trump appeared to freeze with his eyes closed for 10 to 15 seconds at a time, before finally moving his eyes or bowing.
Just before 1:45 pm ET, he gave the same treatment to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, as Rubio praised Trump’s efforts to end the war. Except this time Trump’s apparent slumber was more apparent because he was sitting next to the secretary, and the cameras zoomed in on the two of them. (Previous speakers were far from Trump.)
At the end of Rubio’s monologue, the secretary of state made a joke about how we are in 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 showed it.
Asked about Tuesday’s scene, White House press secretary Carolyn Levitt said Trump was “listening intently and running a marathon three-hour Cabinet meeting.” She praised him for holding nine cabinet meetings this year and for his “exclamatory” answers during question-and-answer sessions when he attacked Democrats and Somali immigrants.
“Throughout these historic meetings, the president and his incredible team highlight a long list of accomplishments on behalf of the American people to make America great again,” Levitt said.
It was the second time in less than a month that Trump appeared to be waging this very obvious battle at a White House event. The latter came to the Oval Office on November 6. After that, The Washington Post reviewed several video feeds and calculated that Trump spent about 20 minutes keeping his eyes open.
Photos of Trump sleeping during the event — even clearer images than Tuesday’s because of the camera angles available in the Oval — quickly went viral.
The point is not whether a 79-year-old man falling asleep is a sign of a serious health concern or whether it’s really all that noticeable. As Levitt noted, Trump took a series of questions after Rubio spoke. And it is undeniable that he made himself more available to the press than his predecessor. He appeared to post on Satya Social before 5:30 a.m. after sharing posts on immigration, Venezuela and other topics in the late morning and near midnight before a cabinet meeting. (In fact, he had posted several dozen times the night before.)
But sightings like this are clearly on the rise.
And as is often the case, Trump has made himself a victim of the standards set for the presidency. Not only did he repeatedly label Biden “Sleepy Joe” because of his lack of activity; He often angered Biden Literally to sleep – and Sleeping on camera.
At least when the shoe is on the other foot, Trump casts such a scene as a sign of presidential disqualification and Biden’s disconnect.
In 2021, after Biden was seen falling asleep at a climate conference in Scotland, Trump said in an email: “Nobody with real passion and belief in a topic ever falls asleep!”
Trump continued to criticize Biden in 2022 and 2023.
After Biden’s lively State of the Union in early 2024, Trump said that “most of the time, he looks like he’s asleep.”
In June 2024, shortly before Biden’s disastrous debate performance, Trump mocked the then-president for appearing sleepy after a trip abroad, saying, “He sleeps at every event.”
By the end of the 2024 campaign, Trump repeatedly captured Biden sleeping on the beach. Trump saw it as particularly strange and outlandish.
“How are you supposed to sleep when the cameras are blaring, right?” He said at one point in September 2024.
He told podcast host Andrew Schulz the same month: “You won’t see me sleeping in front of the camera.”
If falling asleep in meetings is a sign that Biden lacks “enthusiasm and confidence,” why doesn’t the same standard apply to Trump?
Of course, when it comes to health questions, context is key. There’s no question that Biden presented more elderly than Trump, and those around Biden obscured his deteriorating ambivalence. As the Times noted, while rejecting Trump’s appearance and domestic travel, Biden did not schedule or schedule any of the public appearances Trump will make today. (Though his foreign travel increased so far during this period.)
But Trump has also long been opaque about his health, releasing hyperbolic letters from his doctors and resisting full disclosure about his medical visits as president — including a recent MRI. (This week the White House finally released a summary of October medical imaging of his heart and abdominal system — after the president claimed he didn’t even know what part of his body was operated on.)
During Trump’s first term, Dr. Harold Bornstein, who wrote a glowing letter about his health in 2015, said Trump “dictated that whole letter.” The letter claimed that Trump would be “the healthiest person ever elected to the presidency,” even though he was approaching 70 years old and averse to exercise.
Those kinds of things raise the seeds of doubt and legitimize an investigation like the Times’, especially when the president is showing more signs of age.
Just as advertising someone named “Sleepy Joe” will get it more attention when Trump can’t shake his own sleep.
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