Donald Trump became the first sitting president to attend arguments before the Supreme Court on Wednesday, but the monumental case may not have been enough to keep the president awake.
There are no cameras or videos in the country’s highest court, but according to reports from inside the room, the president was seen with his eyes closed.
“He closed his eyes for brief times during the session, but looked alert and focused throughout his time in the courtroom,” is how Fox News put it.
The president, 79, has been known to close his eyes during Cabinet meetings, roundtables, and Oval Office announcements when other people are speaking.
Apparently, attending the oral arguments before the Supreme Court on his effort to limit birthright citizenship was no different despite the high-stakes nature of the case.
Another report by the Washington Examiner also reported he was “occasionally closing his eyes,” while another report indicated that the president appeared bored in the courtroom.
“Trump initially appeared attentive, but as the hearing carried on, his attention appeared to wane and his eyes often wandered across the room,” the Wall Street Journal reported.
In response to the Daily Beast’s question, the White House insisted Trump was listening at the court.
“President Trump was listening attentively while the Supreme Court heard his administration’s commonsense arguments for why the scam of birthright citizenship should be struck down,” said spokesperson Davis Ingle.
The oldest president ever to be inaugurated didn’t even make it through the entire hearing.
Trump silently left the court soon after Solicitor General D. John Sauer concluded arguing the government’s case for just over an hour. After all, he had an Easter lunch on his schedule to get to.
But the president has had to respond to reports of him falling asleep on numerous occasions since returning to office.
He’s repeatedly insisted he is not sleeping but merely resting his eyes after he was spotted with his eyes closed at a series of events over the past year.
After a particularly long Cabinet meeting in December, where the president appeared to be dozing off as his top officials went around the room singing his praises, the president claimed he was not sleeping but was simply bored.
Before he was reelected for a second term, the president appeared for days at a time in court in April and May 2024 while on trial in New York City.
Throughout the many days of witness testimony, Trump was spotted with his eyes shut numerous times by observers in the lower Manhattan courtroom before he was found guilty on all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
Despite having the president of the United States in their court on Wednesday, the Supreme Court justices appeared unperturbed as several expressed deep skepticism of the president’s move to end birthright citizenship.
At one point, Chief Justice John Roberts even responded to Sauer’s claim about easy travel to the U.S. with a jaw-dropping line, “It’s a new world. It’s the same Constitution.”
Two of the Trump-appointed justices on the court also raised a series of probing questions about the case and poked holes in the government’s argument in a way that signaled they were troubled by the arguments being made.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett indicated she was “puzzled” and warned the application of Trump’s executive order could be “messy.” Justice Neil Gorsuch quipped it was as if the administration was arguing with “Roman law resources.”
