President Donald Trump appeared to be sleeping during a televised Oval Office announcement of a health care deal with drug company Regeneron. It’s the latest addition to a series of public dozing episodes, leaving the public concerned about his health.
Donald Trump appears to fall asleep in new meeting
Roughly halfway through the televised remarks, Donald Trump’s eyes grew visibly heavy, making it seem he was sleeping. After all, they closed fully, reopened, then fluttered shut multiple times again while Cabinet members and pharmaceutical executives stood behind him.
This incident follows a string of comparable episodes. In March, Trump was photographed with his eyes shut and head jerking during a public safety roundtable in Memphis, Tennessee. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was addressing the audience at the time. Days before that, the president appeared to struggle to stay awake during a Cabinet meeting as Hegseth criticized media coverage of the joint U.S.-Israeli military operation against Iran and Lebanon.
The Thursday incident follows a string of comparable episodes. In March, Trump was photographed with his eyes shut and head jerking during a public safety roundtable in Memphis, Tennessee. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was addressing the audience at the time. Days before that, the president appeared to struggle to stay awake during a Cabinet meeting as Hegseth criticized media coverage of the joint U.S.-Israeli military operation against Iran and Lebanon.
Trump has addressed the recurring imagery directly. After a December Cabinet meeting video drew attention, he said, “Some people said, he closed his eyes. Look, it got pretty boring.” He added, “I didn’t sleep. I just closed them because I wanted to get the hell outta here.”
At a March rally in Hebron, Kentucky, Trump joked about dozing off during military planning sessions. Recalling a briefing on the Iran operation, he told the crowd that officials presented roughly 20 names for the mission. “And they gave me, like, 20 names, and I’m like, falling asleep,” he said.
Moreover, the repeated episodes, however, continue to generate scrutiny given the president’s history of mocking former President Joe Biden as “Sleepy Joe.”
Originally reported by Devanshi Basu on Mandatory
