President Donald Trump has a habit of posting on social media late into the night, but his schedule is almost clear of public appearances in the morning.
A Daily Beast analysis of the last three months reveals that Trump, who turned 80 last month, was only seen in public three times in Washington, D.C., before 11 a.m. in the entire month of June.
The Beast’s review of the president’s schedule and White House pool reports shows that while the president had some public events in the 11 a.m. hour and early afternoon, the vast majority of his appearances took place in the late afternoon. The only time he was spotted in the morning was during the three days he was out of the country.
The Beast’s analysis showed that the president’s official schedule listed “Executive Time” starting at 8 a.m. on 26 of the 30 days of June. Any public policy meetings or appearances took place later in the day, if at all.
Trump was also not seen in public before 11 a.m. on most days in May. He had designated “Executive Time” on 26 mornings in May and every single day of April at 8 a.m., according to his public schedule.
Since returning to office, the president has repeatedly posted, and reposted, on Truth Social at all hours of the night.
He often appears to doze off during public events in the late afternoon, including in the Oval Office, at round tables and during Cabinet meetings at the White House.
Trump’s bizarre nocturnal habits and use of “Executive Time” to catch up on sleep in his second term were exposed in the book Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump by White House Correspondents Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan.
“Occasionally,” the pair wrote, “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.”
On one such “late morning,” they reported no one had heard from Trump and his team was unable to reach him. In the end, “an aide checked on the President only to find that he was still asleep in the residence.”
The book also revealed that as Trump remains a “night owl,” he and first lady Melania sleep in separate bedrooms at the White House.
Our review of Trump’s schedule showed the only time Trump was spotted in D.C. in the morning before 11 a.m. in the entire month of June was last weekend.
On Saturday, his motorcade departed the White House for his Trump National Golf Club at 9:43 a.m. On Sunday, the White House pool reported his visit to Lafayette Park around 8:30 a.m., while his aide Margo Martin posted a short video of it. He then went to the Haines Point golf course on the Potomac, which he plans to tear up, and arrived at his own Virginia golf club at 11:41 a.m.
The president’s three-day visit to France to attend the G7 summit of world leaders from June 15 to June 17, was the other exception to his MIA mornings.
The president was otherwise kept from public view before 11 a.m. every single day of June.
The only White House event publicly scheduled for the morning in June was delayed. On June 10, the president’s public schedule stated he would sign the Secure America Act at 10 a.m. That event was delayed by more than an hour, and reporters were brought in at 11:17 a.m.
On June 11, he called into Fox & Friends at 8 a.m., but was not seen on camera.
Other than that, the first half of Trump’s day is usually described officially as “Executive Time” starting at 8 a.m. There are also claims of “policy meetings” starting at 11 a.m, but none are open to the media.
Even events at noon are rare. On Wednesday, June 24, Trump had been scheduled to sign the bipartisan housing bill on Capitol Hill at noon. But the president canceled it in a Truth Social post sent shortly before 11.a.m., blindsiding Republicans on the Hill who had a stage set up in Statuary Hall, ready for him to sign it.
In the end, he made it to Capitol Hill to attend the Republican Senate luncheon just after 1 p.m. and stayed for about an hour.
Asked for comment on the president remaining largely behind closed doors and away from the public gaze in the mornings, the White House did not address his schedule but copied and pasted a quote previously sent to the Huffington Post about Trump falling asleep in a meeting.
“President Trump’s sharpness, unmatched energy, and historic accessibility stand in stark contrast to what we saw during the last administration, when Democrats and the legacy media like the failing Huffington Post intentionally covered up Joe Biden’s serious mental and physical decline from the American people,” spokesman Davis Ingle said.
Ingle, 32, is a communications graduate of Florida’s Southeastern University, where his father, Kent Ingle, is president.
The White House also ignored the Daily Beast’s questions about what “Executive Time” actually means.
Trump has at times posted on Truth Social during that “Executive Time,” including posts that respond in close to real time to what is being shown on cable news, but even posts like these were rare in June.
Executive Time has been included in the president’s public schedule since his first term as unstructured time for the president to spend as he pleases.
In May, Trump had “Executive Time” on his schedule 26 out of 31 days. He had morning appearances before 11 a.m. on 11 days that month. Four were to play golf, while three took place during his visit to China, the Daily Beast review found.
It means there were only four days in May when Trump appeared publicly before 11 a.m., in Washington, D.C. At 10:25 a.m. on May 19, he walked outside the White House to show off the construction of his ballroom. The next day, he flew to Connecticut to deliver a commencement address at the Coast Guard Academy.
On May 5, he was set to sign a proclamation at 10:30 a.m., but it started almost half an hour late.
He was also on the road early on May 26 to visit Walter Reed Military Medical Center for his annual physical, where 22 specialists consulted on the president’s health before his doctor deemed him in excellent health, to widespread skepticism and mockery.
In April, Trump had “Executive Time” at 8 a.m. every day. While the president had a handful of phone interviews in the morning that month, he emerged for public events only six times before 11 a.m.
One of those was a disaster: On April 1, Trump traveled to the Supreme Court bright and early to catch the first part of oral arguments in the birthright citizenship case before departing halfway through. He lost humiliatingly.
He was also spotted out early on April 2 for the Easter Egg Roll, which was set to begin at 10 a.m. Trump did not appear on the Truman Balcony until 10:48 a.m. That Saturday, he made it out in the morning to go to his golf club and on April 18, he ushered the press into the Oval Office at just after 9 a.m. to sign executive orders.
But after that, it was more than a week before the president had another morning event. That was to greet King Charles at the White House on April 28, where the ceremony began late—at just before 11 a.m.
