The White House has fired back at anyone who assumed Donald Trump was sleeping during a maternal health event in the Oval Office on Monday. The official Rapid Response account on X (formerly Twitter) responded to a photo that showed the president with his eyes closed, writing, “He was blinking, you absolute moron” — but netizens are not so sure about that. Reuters photographer Evelyn Hockstein took the picture, while National Security Correspondent Idrees Ali posted it on X.
White House offers explanation of why Donald Trump appears to sleep in meetings
The photo shows Donald Trump seemingly sleeping behind the Resolute Desk, as Cabinet members, Alabama Senator Katie Britt, and Dr. Mehmet Oz, surround him. However, the White House came to the president’s rescue. Moreover, the White House stuck to the same explanation on a different video from the event that appeared to show the president dozing off.
However, the video did not help the blinking defense. Democratic Representative Ted Lieu shared the footage and counted the seconds, writing, “Dear @RapidResponse47: That is a verrrrrrrrryyyyy long blink.” But White House Communications Director Steven Cheung attacked Lieu online. Cheung said, “Ted Lewd is a loser of the highest order and he needs to get serious professional help for his debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
Notably, the president addressed the recurring images of him dozing off in a Wall Street Journal interview. Speaking about shutting his eyes, Trump said, “It’s very relaxing to me,” and added, “Sometimes they’ll take a picture of me blinking, blinking, and they’ll catch me with the blink.”
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins has previously described the punishing rhythm of Trump’s overseas travel to podcaster Jason Tartick last October. She said, “He doesn’t sleep on these trips,” adding, “Trump is just always up and talking, and he’ll like, have them go and wake staff up if they’re asleep because he wants to talk to them.”
All in all, the White House is firm that Donald Trump is blinking, not sleeping. But the evidence and the president’s own admission that he shuts his eyes to relax make the explanation a tough sell.
