The Daily Show has a holiday message to its viewers and Donald Trump, in a video trolling the president’s habit of falling asleep on the job.
The series posted a video to its social media channels on Tuesday, with the caption, “Merry Christmas to all, and to Donald Trump, good night.” The video compiles clips of Trump falling asleep, set to audio of him remarking on different occasions, “Who the hell sleeps in front of the media?”
Trump, 79, made a big to-do about Joe Biden appearing to fall asleep during inopportune moments, nicknaming the 83-year-old president “Sleepy Joe.”
But in The Daily Show’s compilation, it is Trump who snoozes the most, as the video shows his head repeatedly drooping against a cozy fireplace backdrop. “How do you sleep in front of the media?” Trump asks again as the clip rolls to the crackles of the cozy-looking fire. “And he’s out cold, you see the dribble coming down the side of his cheek,” he sneers to one image of him looking down with his mouth slightly ajar.
“Who the hell wants to sleep with these people watching?” he asks. “I could never fall asleep under those circumstances.”
Trump made many of the comments used in the video during an address to the National Republican Congressional Committee Dinner in April. “He’s the President, so he had a minimum of photographers, but he still had photographers. And he could fall asleep,” Trump said, trolling Biden at the time and giving The Daily Show good fodder for its own trolling months later.
“And he’d turn around, and drool would be coming out. He didn’t care. His wife didn’t care. It’s an ability that—I could never fall asleep under those circumstances. I’d be very conscious of my body and what we look like.”
Ironically, Trump has, as The Daily Show points out, himself made a frequent habit of falling asleep during press conferences and cabinet meetings. Twice in December, the MAGA leader has been spotted catching a bit of shut-eye during meetings. When reached for comment about dozing off during a round table event on Dec. 9, White House Press Secretary Liz Huston said, “The Daily Beast is a trash publication spreading lies daily about President Trump.”
Critics, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, have nicknamed him “Dozy Don” for his repeated public drift-offs.
The Daily Show is at least able to gleen and spread some Christmas cheer from the president’s sleep habit, as it rounds out the video with a line from Trump’s interview with podcaster Andrew Schulz last year, “You’ll never see me sleeping in front of the camera.”
