Edith Hejberg
Trump’s current situation is striking, considering his long history of mocking Biden for looking tired or appearing to doze.
At the start of Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting, President Trump opened with a jab at Joe Biden, repeating his usual “Sleepy Joe” nickname.
He quickly turned the focus to himself, claiming, “I’m sharper than I was 25 years ago,” and dismissed a detailed New York Times article questioning his vitality as false. “Trump is sharp, but they’re not sharp,” he said of the paper.
Accusations of unfair treatment from the press
Trump didn’t stop at the Times. He scolded reporters in the room for what he saw as biased scrutiny of his health and stamina.
“You people are crazy,” he told them, brushing off questions about his age or alertness just before settling in for a lengthy meeting with his Cabinet.
A slow-motion drift into nap territory
Despite proclaiming his sharpness, Trump appeared to fight off sleep for much of the next hour.
As Cabinet members lined up to praise him, one of his favored rituals, he was repeatedly caught on camera with his eyes closed or blinking slowly. It was the very image he used to mock Biden.
Struggling to stay awake mid-meeting
Roughly 15 minutes into the meeting, Trump’s eyes grew heavy as Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick applauded his trade policies.
Despite the fanfare, the president seemed disengaged, blinking slowly and struggling to stay alert, even as he received glowing accolades.
Blink by blink, the signs mounted
As other officials like Housing Secretary Scott Turner and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins spoke, Trump’s head dipped lower, and his blinks got longer.
By the time Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer took their turns, his apparent drowsiness was hard to ignore.
Prolonged pauses and closed eyes
When Education Secretary Linda McMahon and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. addressed the room, Trump sat motionless, his eyes closed for stretches of 10 to 15 seconds.
Occasionally, he’d nod or glance up, barely masking his visible struggle to stay present.
Right next to Rubio – and the cameras
The moment became even more noticeable during Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s remarks. Trump was seated directly beside him, and cameras zoomed in, catching more obvious moments of eye-closing and head-tilting.
Rubio even cracked a joke about the College Football Playoff, but Trump didn’t react.
White House insists Trump was fully alert
When asked about the seemingly sleepy display, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt insisted Trump had been “listening attentively.”
She pointed to his participation in the three-hour session, calling it a “marathon” and emphasizing that Trump later answered questions forcefully, including one targeting Democrats and Somali immigrants.
A repeat performance from earlier in November
This wasn’t a one-off moment. Less than a month ago, on November 6, Trump was caught in a similar state during an Oval Office event.
The Washington Post reviewed video footage and estimated he spent nearly 20 minutes battling drowsiness, with even clearer visual evidence than on Tuesday.
Trump mocked Biden for similar behavior
Trump’s current situation is striking, considering his long history of mocking Biden for looking tired or appearing to doze.
After Biden closed his eyes during a 2021 climate summit, Trump wrote: “Nobody that has true enthusiasm and belief in a subject will ever fall asleep!” He doubled down on that critique through 2022 and 2023.
Trump once claimed you’d ‘never see’ him sleep
In September 2024, Trump told podcast host Andrew Schulz, “You’ll never see me sleeping in front of the camera.”
He also asked, “How do you fall asleep when cameras are raging, right?” These repeated jabs at Biden’s energy have set a high bar – one that now invites close scrutiny when Trump appears less than fully alert.
The double standard at play
Trump built much of his narrative around mocking Biden’s age, energy, and stamina often exaggerating for effect.
But now that similar visuals are surfacing with Trump himself, the contrast is hard to ignore. As the article notes, “Trump has rendered himself a victim of the standards he has set.”
Questions about health remain unanswered
While Trump remains visibly more active and engaged than Biden, his own health disclosures have often been vague. From dubious doctor letters to withholding details about a recent MRI, Trump has a history of minimizing scrutiny.
Still, with growing signs of age and fatigue, observers are asking more questions, just as he once encouraged them to do about others.
