“The president has severe daytime somnolence,” said Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a CNN medical analyst in a recent interview with the network about President Donald Trump. “He falls asleep very often. He’s fallen asleep in the Oval Office on multiple occasions, with people talking to him.”
As Reiner explained, “daytime somnolence” simply means that Trump appears to sleep during the day frequently. However, the president has denied that he gets shut eye during the day.
During a January Cabinet meeting, he brushed off rumors that he had fallen asleep in another meeting held the previous month. Trump said he was bored, but not asleep.
“Look, it got pretty boring,” he said of the meetings, a declaration met with laughter. By that time, Trump had already been accused of falling asleep in public on at least one other occasion that prompted Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) to say he “certainly looks pretty while he sleeps.”
According to a Wednesday report in The New Republic, Trump fell asleep in a Cabinet meeting held this week. It said “the president could be seen with his eyes closed for a prolonged period of time while sitting right next to Secretary of State Marco Rubio,” and claimed that this marks “at least the eighth time President Trump has fallen asleep on camera this year.”
This report from The New Republic comes on the heels of allegations that Trump fell asleep during Memorial Day services at Arlington National Cemetery. Snopes addressed the rumors in an article this week, citing video footage published by C-SPAN.
“It is not possible to definitively declare the claim as true or false based simply upon zooming in on C-SPAN’s footage – captured from an already zoomed-in camera positioned far away,” said Snopes. “Such subsequent digital zooming produces a low-quality image, providing a lack of credible, sufficient proof. As such, we have not yet rated this unproven claim.”
In the zoomed-in footage, Trump appears to repeatedly close and open his eyes, wipe his brow and yawn at least once, said Snopes. Despite Trump’s denial, Snopes said that the president did “truly” nod off during that December cabinet meeting.
“Snopes emailed the White House to ask if Trump fell asleep during the ceremony and will update this article if we receive a response,” regarding the Memorial Day footage.
Reiner also noted the rumors that Trump fell asleep during the Memorial Day event when he spoke with CNN. Rumors about Trump’s health tend to fly around the holidays – over Labor Day weekend last year there was even speculation that he had died.
Additionally, people close to Trump have said they don’t know when the president sleeps, and he’s said that he doesn’t get much shut-eye. Not getting enough sleep can be risky, Reiner noted.
“It’s a real problem,” Reiner told CNN, referring to insomnia. He explained that it can produce a decline in mental functions. CNN also reported that Trump’s father died from Alzheimer’s Disease, a common form of dementia, in his 90s.
Trump, the oldest person ever elected to be president, will turn 80 next month. When people reach their 80s, the risk of many health conditions increase.
In a Monday Truth Social post, the president said: “Just finished my 6 month physical at Walter Reed Military Medical Center. Everything checked out PERFECTLY. Thank you to the great Doctors and Staff! Heading back to the White House.”
Dr. Sanjay Gupta told CNN that the physical marked three visits over the last 13 months that the public knows about. He also noted that Trump does have a few medical conditions, including elevated blood pressure and sun damage. There’s also been concerns about his swollen ankles – contributed to Chronic Venous Insufficiency, a common condition – and hand bruising attributed to aspirin use.
According to Gupta, Trump takes four times the recommended dosage of aspirin as a blood thinner. Both Gupta and Reiner expressed concern about a visit Trump made to Walter Reed in October that wasn’t reported until later.
“It’s a cloudy picture,” Gupta said of the public’s knowledge of the president’s health. Trump is not required to publicly disclose health information, but it is a tradition dating back to the tenure of former President Richard Nixon.
Trump’s predecessor, former President Joe Biden, has been criticized for a lack of transparency around his health since he left office at age 82. Audacy reported this week that Biden’s wife, Jill, told CBS News that she was afraid he was suffering a stroke during his 2024 debate with Trump.
