No, President Donald Trump isn’t getting shut-eye in during official meetings, according to statements he made at the Cabinet meeting this Thursday. He just thinks they tend to be a bore.
“The last time we had a press conference, it lasted for three hours… and some people said, ‘He closed his eyes,’” said Trump. He added: “Look, it got pretty boring,” to an outbreak of laughter in the Cabinet room.
CSPAN noted that after the Dec. 2 meeting, which lasted two hours and 18 minutes, reporters from the New York Times and CNN said Trump appeared to doze off. While he admitted to closing his eyes, the president said it wasn’t to sleep.
“No offense, I love these people… but there’s a lot of people and it was a little bit on the boring side,” he explained, to even more laughter. “I didn’t sleep, I just closed them because I wanted to get the hell out of here.”
This isn’t the first time Trump has been accused of dozing off during an important event. In May 2024, when he was on the campaign trail, reports said he seemed to have fallen asleep multiple times during his “hush money” trial in New York.
Those reports prompted this quote from Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.): “If he is sleeping, you know – [he] certainly looks pretty while he sleeps.”
Last month, Trump blasted The New York Times for reports that he “once was, or am in poor physical health,” and said that he was working “very hard, probably harder than I have ever worked before.”
Rumors about the president’s health reached a weird fever pitch in September when people were speculating online that he died. A reporter even asked Trump about it.
“I didn’t do any for two days and they say: ‘There must be something wrong with him,’” said Trump of his public appearances. “Biden wouldn’t do them for months.”
Former President Joe Biden told Democratic governors that he needed more sleep back in summer 2024, shortly before he dropped out of the presidential race. He was 81 at the time.
Trump, who will turn 80 this June, noted Thursday that he doesn’t “sleep much,” something that his inner circle has confirmed. Audacy previously reported that Attorney General Pam Bondi, Vice President JD Vance and even members of Trump’s own family weren’t sure when he actually sleeps.
“Some of them got me in a blink,” Trump added about photos that apparently show him napping during meetings. “They got me at the closed segment of the cycle,” he chuckled.