Donald Trump has admitted falling asleep during a planning meeting for his war on Iran.
At a a rally Wednesday in Kentucky, the 79-year-old president told how he was nodding off as officials and generals discussed the codename that would be used for the conflict, which has so far cost the lives of seven American service members.
“They gave me a list of names to choose. ‘Sir, you could pick the name you’d like, sir.’ I said ‘The name of what?’ ‘The name of the attack on Iran, sir,’” Trump told the crowd.
“And they gave me, like, 20 names, and I’m like, falling asleep. I didn’t like any of them. Then I see ‘Epic Fury.’ I said, ‘I like that name. I like that name.’”
Trump launched what he called “major combat operations” against Iran with joint U.S.-Israeli airstrikes on Feb. 28. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and dozens of top officials were killed in the opening salvos.
Since then more than 1,200 people have been killed in Iran, including dozens of children at an elementary school thought to have been hit by a U.S. Tomahawk missile. Seven U.S. service members have been killed and more than 140 wounded in retaliatory strikes conducted by Iran throughout the region. According to a Pentagon briefing to Congress, the war cost the United States $11.3 billion in its first week.
The president has developed something of a reputation for dozing off during important meetings, including those open to the public.
He has been caught with his eyes closed at multiple press conferences and meetings since returning to the White House, most recently at a roundtable meeting earlier this month where he could be seen with his eyes closed and his face drooping.
He was also caught closing his eyes during the inaugural meeting of his so-called “Board of Peace” while surrounded by world leaders in February, and again while standing beside one of his Cabinet members who was giving a speech about the Clean Air Act.
His penchant for dozing off has become a point of attack for his critics, with the Democratic Party celebrating National Napping Day on March 9 with a post about the president.
“Big day for the Commander-in-Sleep,” the Democrats wrote on X, attaching a photo of Trump with his eyes closed during a cabinet meeting.
According to Trump’s biographer Michael Wolff, the president’s sleepiness is worrying his aides, particularly because of his tendency to blame them after he’s caught dozing.
“I mean, you can’t wake him up. Also, the cameras are running. Everybody is in a low-level panic now all of the time about Trump falling asleep because then he gets mad,” Wolff said on the Inside Trump’s Head podcast in December. “He gets angry. He essentially blames the people around him for the fact that he fell asleep.”
Voters also appear to be concerned about the president’s naps, based on a focus group brought together by Axios of 14 swing voters in North Carolina who voted for Joe Biden in 2020 but switched to Trump in 2024.
Eleven of the 14 said they had heard that the president struggles to stay awake during meetings. Asked to react to a montage of clips of Trump nodding off, one voter wondered if Trump was downplaying health issues, something he had accused Biden of doing.
One man, an independent, chalked it up to the president’s advanced age, saying, “I don’t know if it’s any huge medical issue. I mean, you get to be 80, this is not, CEOs aren’t 80 for most companies. He just needs more sleep.”
“Well, he also spends half the night tweeting,” noted another voter.
A 31-year-old independent concluded, “It’s not that him falling asleep is out of the ordinary given his age. But it is the most important job you could have in the country, so you probably shouldn’t be falling asleep.”
