Late-night host Stephen Colbert has a new nickname for the commander-in-chief after he struggled to stay awake during a Q&A about the latest war he started.
Colbert targeted President Donald Trump in his Tuesday night monologue after footage emerged of the 79-year-old repeatedly closing his eyes while fielding reporter questions about his ongoing bombing campaign.
“Hey, President Sleepy-Time Bear! Wake Up!” Colbert shouted at the clip on The Late Show. “Get some toothpicks. Try to stay awake for your own bombing campaign.”
The host also floated a segment rename: “Commander-in-Snuz.”
It is not the first time Trump’s relationship with consciousness has attracted attention. Over the past year, he has repeatedly been photographed with his eyes closed during meetings with Cabinet members and allies.
Trump has pushed back on the characterization, insisting photographers are simply catching him mid-blink. “I’ll just close. It’s very relaxing to me,” he said. “Sometimes they’ll take a picture of me blinking, blinking, and they’ll catch me with the blink.”
CNN anchor Jake Tapper offered a more charitable read in December, after Trump was accused of nodding off during a Cabinet meeting. “Look, he’s 79 years old,” Tapper said. “This is not abnormal for a 79-year-old to be sleepy.”
The White House’s preferred counter-narrative comes courtesy of Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, who has marveled publicly at the president’s alleged sleep schedule.
“The president sleeps less than me! I sleep five hours a night. The president sleeps four hours a night, and he is working all the time,” Lutnick said. “He calls me late at night. He wants to talk about the day. He is on it all the time. It is the most impressive thing you have ever seen!”
Whether Trump is blinking, relaxing, or just running on four hours of sleep, Colbert’s verdict on the optics will rankle the president, who is known to watch, and angrily react to, late-night segments.
