At a Cabinet meeting, US President Donald Trump vehemently denied rumors about his age, saying he was “sharper than 25 years ago”. But for the next hour and a half, he seemed to have difficulty sleeping, occasionally standing still and closing his eyes as ministers spoke – a scene that he himself had repeatedly mocked about his predecessor Joe Biden.
The cabinet meeting turned into a demonstration full of ironic contradictions. President Donald Trump, when opening the meeting, strongly criticized reporters for a recent article showing signs of slowing in the 79-year-old president's second term. He calls critics “crazy” and proudly declares that he is “deeper than I was 25 years ago.” However, immediately after this confident speech, his own energy seemed to quickly evaporate. For the next hour and a half, Trump fought an almost constant and often losing battle with the irresistible urge to take a nap at the conference table.
As Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick declared “the greatest cabinet of all time for the greatest president of all time,” Trump's wink has slowed. His eyelids seemed heavy as Housing Minister Scott Turner and Agriculture Minister Brooke Rollins spoke. The climax came when Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Labor Secretary Laurie Chavez-Deremer and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin spoke. At the time Education Secretary Linda McMahon and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaking, Trump closed his eyes completely for 10 to 15 seconds before forcing them open or nodding.
The most revealing incident occurred when Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke. Sitting right next to him, with all cameras recording, Trump allowed himself the most obvious and prolonged nap. Rubio ended his speech by joking about “the most magical time of the year,” the College Football Playoff. Even though the President heard the joke, he did not show any reaction. White House press secretary Caroline Leavitt later said Trump “listened attentively and participated throughout the three-hour marathon,” citing his performance during the question-and-answer session where he criticized Democrats and Somali immigrants. However, visual evidence tells a different story.
This is the second such incident in less than a month. On November 6, in the Oval Office, Trump, according to the American press, spent almost 20 minutes fighting against sleep, and photos of this quickly spread widely. The fact that a 79-year-old man may fall asleep during the day is not unusual or necessarily a sign of serious health problems. Trump, judging by his activity on social media, may indeed have stayed up late and early in the morning before the meeting – he posted until 5:30 am.
Trump has spent decades creating a rhetoric in which physical strength and tirelessness are essential characteristics of leadership, and indifference a sign of weakness and incompetence. He didn't just call Joe Biden “Sleepy Joe” – he savored every episode as his opponent seemed to nod off in public. In 2021, after Biden appeared to nod at a climate conference in Glasgow, Trump wrote: “Nobody with real passion and belief in this subject can sleep on it!” He returned to the subject several times, declaring in 2024, “You will never see me sleeping on camera.” Now that the cameras have captured it, his own words are turning against him, turning each slow blink into a political symbol.
The problem is further complicated by Trump's lack of transparency on health issues. Throughout his career, he has published exaggerated medical reports, such as a 2015 letter in which his then-doctor said the US leader “had ordered it all” and claimed he would be “the healthiest man ever elected to the presidency”. Even the recent MRI examination raised questions: first the president promised to release the results, then said he did not know which parts of the body were scanned. The White House only released the report after time and persistent requests.
