Has Donald Trump replaced 'Sleepy Joe'? The President appeared to doze off during a long Cabinet meeting today. At one point, Trump's eyes appeared to grow heavy just after he asked each Cabinet member to highlight their accomplishments from his first year in office.
The 79-year-old also shrugged off questions about his health during the marathon meeting, which stretched on for two hours and 18 minutes. This comes just after the White House shared more information on Monday about an MRI done as part of his annual physical. Clips from the Cabinet meeting quickly made the rounds on social media, where users jokingly dubbed the President the "Commander in Sleep."
White House Defends Trump
But White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt quickly dismissed any claims that Trump lacked energy, insisting he was fully alert and engaged. "President Trump was listening attentively and running the entire three-hour marathon Cabinet meeting," she told the Daily Mail in a statement.
Before he appeared to briefly close his eyes, Trump insisted that the media should concentrate on highlighting his successes at the border instead. "But you always find something new, like, 'Is he in good health?'" the President said. "Biden was great," he added sarcastically.
"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.
Some of the Cabinet members began to chuckle as the President continued speaking.
"You go back, and you can't find anything, but you do, you do stories about Biden was in wonderful health,' Trump continued. 'The guy couldn't do a news conference for eight months."
"If I go one day, I had one day where I didn't do a news conference. There's something wrong with the President,'" he added.
Trump in Good Health
Trump's occasional rambling posts on Truth Social — including one aimed at Minnesota Governor Tim Walz — led Walz, the Democrats' 2024 vice-presidential nominee, to call on the White House to make Trump's MRI results public.
When reporters asked Trump about Walz's remarks on Sunday aboard Air Force One, he agreed to release the MRI findings, which Leavitt then made public on Monday.
"You people are crazy," Trump told the reporters in the Cabinet Room. "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."
He also bragged that he scored "all A's" on his physical, which included a cognitive test. Trump made his bold statement right at the start of the meeting — and his heavy, stubborn eyelids showed up about an hour and a half later.
That led the left-leaning PatriotTakes account on X to jokingly dub Trump the "Commander in sleep." Liberal journalist Aaron Rupar added, "Trump looks to be unconscious as Linda McMahon winds down her remarks."
Education Secretary Linda McMahon was among the last Cabinet members to give her remarks.
Pushing back on claims that Trump nodded off, Leavitt pointed to the President's "incredible final answer" during his exchange with reporters, saying he "tore into the America-Last Democrats for letting radical Somali migrants pour into the country and take advantage of U.S. taxpayers."
Trump fielded questions after every Cabinet member had finished speaking.
In that closing answer, he also took shots at Walz and Minnesota Democrat Ilhan Omar, who was born in Somalia.
