Serial sleep-dodger Donald Trump’s bizarre bedtime habits have been revealed in a bombshell new book about the oldest man to be inaugurated as U.S. president.
Trump, 80, has gained a reputation for sleeping less and less in his golden years. He has also developed a penchant for going on Truth Social posting sprees after midnight, as well as being caught on camera seeming to nod off during important White House meetings.
His ability to operate as the most powerful person on Earth with minimal shut-eye has been hailed as a superpower by fawning members of his administration.
The new book Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump, by White House correspondents Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, reveals more about Trump’s erratic sleeping patterns.
The book claims that in Trump’s White House, “time is a flexible concept.”
The authors state that Trump not only renovated the White House to replicate his own gaudy gold aesthetic, but also fundamentally changed the “rhythms and structures and operations of the place.”
In his first term, Trump would arrive in the Oval Office by 10:30 or 11 a.m, but in his second term, his hours have been less predictable, in line with his new nocturnal patterns.
“Some mornings Trump would be up early making phone calls and posting on social media while watching TV,” the book states.
“But occasionally, aides couldn’t reach him during the hours between eight and ten, when they soon came to realize meant he had stayed up all night, on the phone or watching television or both, only to finally catch some sleep around four or five in the morning.”
The book claims that “one late morning,” when no one had heard from Trump and his staff were unable to reach him, “an aide checked on the President only to find that he was still asleep in the residence.”
The authors note that Trump has “remained a night owl” in his second term as president and also reveal that Trump and first lady Melania sleep in separate bedrooms.
“He had never been a big sleeper, but now it seemed to his staff that he was sleeping even less, keeping stranger hours than he had in his first term,” the book says of the senior president.
Regime Change also claims some of Trump’s aides began to say privately that, for the first time, he was “beginning to seem old” during his second term.
“Those who spent time with him could see the signs—the moments of fatigue, the cupped hand behind the ear.”
The book continues, “That he had aged since he last lived in the White House was obvious. There were the repeated bouts of drowsiness during mid-afternoon public events. And there were the near-constant bruises on his hands, which his aides first attributed to marks from frequent handshaking. Trump, who usually tried to conceal the bruising with makeup, later said they were caused primarily by the unusually large aspirin regimen he took as a blood thinner.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
Earlier this month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio tried to defend Trump over claims he seemed to be sleeping during a Cabinet meeting.
“That’s false. That’s false. I’ve never seen him fall asleep,” Rubio insisted while testifying on Capitol Hill.
“On the contrary, the guy doesn’t sleep, which is a big problem, because he calls me at 2 in the morning, he calls me at 5 in the morning, and you know, I like to sleep a little bit—maybe not 12 hours—but at least six… I don’t know what you’re talking about," Rubio claimed.
Democrat Congressman Ted Lieu played a video from May, stating, “You are literally talking about issues of war and peace, and Donald Trump is sleeping right next to you.”
“This is a joke,” Rubio said.
