Donald Trump spent Joe Biden’s four years in the White House questioning the Democrat’s physical prowess and stamina and derisively labeling him “Sleepy Joe.” He still brings up allegations of a near-comatose 46th president, claiming Biden’s condition left official acts to his White House staff. But on Tuesday, it was the 79-year-old Trump who appeared to fall asleep a handful of times during a Cabinet meeting that spanned more than two hours.
Journalists positioned across from Trump in the White House’s ornate Cabinet Room chronicled him sitting with eyes closed, his head sometimes rocking forward or to the side as his administration’s department and agency heads spoke. Last up was Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who praised his boss, as his fellow Cabinet members had — though it was unclear how much Trump heard.
“What the president has said is we’re going to do foreign aid, but we’re going to do foreign aid for countries that are aligned with the United States and in a way that doesn’t waste the taxpayers’ money,” Rubio said as Trump sat beside him, both eyes closed before his body suddenly jolted forward and his eyes opened. “Mr. President, you deserve tremendous credit for that.”
Several veteran House and Senate Democrats viewed the scene, the second such public instance in several weeks of Trump appearing to doze off, as a reason to question the president’s well-being. Questions have swirled around Trump’s health after his second physical this year at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in October. (He had his yearly checkup there in April.)
“I don’t think this president is up to the job. I have thought that for a long time. That’s why Congress needs to do its job,” House Rules ranking member Jim McGovern said Thursday, panning Republican leaders for, in his view, coddling the president.
“We need to do oversight, and we need to have a leadership here that doesn’t try to hide all of his mistakes and all of his inadequacies,” the 66-year-old Massachusetts Democrat added. “I’m not a medical doctor. I’m worried about his policies that I think are doing great harm to people that I care about and that I represent.”
Democratic Rep. James E. Clyburn said he was less worried about Trump’s physical and mental status, calling that “a concern for the Republicans.”
“Maybe he just needs sleep,” the 85-year-old South Carolinian said Thursday, hours before Trump was again observed closing his eyes several times during an event at the U.S. Institute of Peace, which now bears his name on its outer facade. “I don’t worry about it, but there’s something going on medically. Just listen to him.”
One of Trump’s top allies in the Senate, however, disagreed, chuckling when asked about the apparent Cabinet Room snoozes.
“Trump is an amazing specimen,” Wisconsin Republican Ron Johnson said. “I mean, he’s a scratch golfer, basically. I mean, have you ever seen a president as energetic or as engaged as this president? … So, no, I’m not concerned about his mental state or his physical state.”
For emphasis, the 70-year-old senator added: “He’s quite the unique specimen.”
More eyes on Trump
Some members of the White House press corps have been accused of missing the story around the declining health of Biden, who was 82 when he left office in January.
So it’s little surprise that reporters have been more eagle-eyed this time around, looking for any aging signs as Trump heads toward his 80th birthday in June. A Washington Post analysis of video footage from Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting found the president appeared to struggle to stay awake for a total of nearly 20 minutes. But White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told The New York Times on Tuesday that her boss was “listening attentively and running the entire” meeting.
One Senate Democrat, who is in his late 70s and requested anonymity to be candid, brushed off the controversy, saying with a grin, “Hell, it’s happened to me.”
Another colleague, Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, also no Trump defender, said he “wouldn’t read too much into it,” adding: “He may just be tired from a lack of sleep.”
Rather than track alleged presidential catnaps, Blumenthal, 79, advised Democrats to remain “really focused on the mistakes and missteps in policy, which are so deeply dangerous and potentially destructive.”
To that end, McGovern dismissed some of Trump’s Republican allies who have questioned the commander in chief’s flirtation with U.S. military air and land operations in Venezuela as he pressures its hard-line leader, Nicolas Maduro.
“What’s going on in Venezuela right now? The idea that some people are now coming late to the game, expressing concern that we might be inching toward war,” McGovern said. “Where the hell have you been?”
Meanwhile, Trump, this week, in his clearest statement yet, said he would not seek a third presidential term in 2028.
Ironically, before he was caught seemingly fighting sleep Tuesday as his Cabinet members spoke for over an hour, Trump fell back on a familiar insult for his predecessor in his opening remarks.
“Since last January, we’ve stopped inflation in its tracks, and there is still more to do,” he said. “We’ll soon be at a perfect level, but we inherited the worst inflation. But we have 20 states that are now selling gasoline at less than the $2.75 [per gallon]. Think of that, $2.75. And it was at $5 under ‘Sleepy Joe.’”
The post Democrats question Trump’s stamina after he appears to nod off in public appeared first on Roll Call.
