The Moment President Trump Appears to Fall Asleep During a Critical Cabinet Meeting—And the Controversy That Followed.
This is the third time in recent weeks the president Donald Trump has been accused of falling asleep at work
Donald Trump may be the president of the United States, but he appears to have earned a new nickname after he seemingly ‘fell asleep’ during Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting.
This 79-year-old president appeared to nod off during the extended meeting, with his eyes visibly drooping after he encouraged every member of his Cabinet to boast about their year-one accomplishments.
The meeting, which ran for two hours and 17 minutes, featured a host of subjects, including Trump’s hardened stance on tackling drugs being trafficked into the country, concerns about his health and a rant singling out Somali migrants.
Still, users on social media couldn’t help but note Trump’s waning attention, earning him both the title of ‘Dozy Don’ and ‘Commander in Sleep’.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt hit back at any comments stating that Trump was anything but energetic.
“President Trump was listening attentively and running the entire three-hour marathon Cabinet meeting,” she said in a statement to the Daily Mail.
It is the third such time in recent weeks that President Trump has been accused of sleeping in meetings.
Before being spotted ‘resting his eyes’, Trump had once again hit out at journalists for their lines of questioning stating: “You always find something new, like, ‘Is he in good health?’” Before sarcastically adding: “Biden was great.”
“I sit here and do four news conferences a day. I ask questions from very intelligent lunatics. You people. I give the right answers. There’s never a scandal. There’s never a problem. I give you answers and solve your little problems,” Trump continued.
“You go back, and you can’t find anything, but you do, you do stories about Biden was in wonderful health. The guy couldn’t do a news conference for eight months.”
The US leader added: “If I go one day, I had one day where I didn’t do a news conference. ‘There’s something wrong with the president.’”
In recent weeks, the health of Trump has been the subject of increased scrutiny, with Minnesota’s Governor Tim Walz urging Trump to release his MRI results.
Trump did comply with the request and on December 1, the White House revealed that he had a ‘perfectly normal’ set of results, with no issues to be concerned about.
“You people are crazy,” he told reporters.
“I’ll let you know when there’s something wrong. There will be some day, that’s going to happen to all of us. But right now, I think I’m sharper than I was 25 years ago, but who the hell knows.”
Trump’s staunch defence of his health came at the start of the meeting, but just over 90 minutes in, his attention span appeared to be waning, with the president then seen closing his eyes while other Cabinet members spoke.
This prompted users on the social media to begin dubbing Trump the ‘Commander in sleep’.
Leavitt meanwhile hit back at the comments, instead drawing attention to the ‘amazing final answer’ he had given during his back-and-forth with reporters, which included a scathing attack on Somali migrants.
“Just go back and watch his amazing final answer in the press conference, where he ripped into the America-Last Democrats for allowing radical Somali migrants to invade our country and steal from American taxpayers,” she added, according to People. “This epic moment put an exclamation point on President Trump’s ninth Cabinet meeting of his second term — all of which have been entirely open to the press for the whole world to see.”
90 minutes in, the president appeared to be struggling to stay awake (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Leavitt continued: “In all of these historic meetings, the president and his incredible team highlight the exhaustive list of accomplishments they have delivered on behalf of the American people to Make America Great Again.”
Targeting Representative Ilhan Omar, who was born in Somalia, Trump said: “She’s garbage, her friends are garbage. These aren’t people that work. These aren’t people that say, let’s go, come on, let’s make this place great. These are people that do nothing but complain.”
“And they complain and do nothing but b***h,” the president added. “We don’t want them in our country. Let them go back to where they came from and fix it.”
