President Donald Trump, who insists he feels like he did 50 years ago, has been caught in a public bout of daytime drowsiness.
The 79-year-old president appeared to slip into a heavy-eyed daze during an Oval Office proclamation signing on Tuesday to restore the Presidential Fitness Test in schools.
After going off script to rant about his war on Iran in front of a group of children, the president turned things over to his Cabinet members.
As Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Education Secretary Linda McMahon spoke about the importance of exercise, the president appeared to sink into sleepiness, his eyes opening and closing repeatedly.
While Kennedy, 72, lavished praise on Trump for his “leadership and his vision” in reinstating the fitness test and encouraging Americans to “get in shape,” Trump closed his eyes, then lifted his eyebrows in an apparent effort to stay awake.
His struggle carried on as he repeatedly managed to open his eyes before his eyelids ultimately drooped shut again.
Trump wasn’t the only one in the meeting apparently struggling to stay awake; there were yawns from the children surrounding Trump as well.
The president’s latest public sleeping fit comes less than two weeks after California Governor Gavin Newsom accused him of being “asleep at the wheel” for appearing to nod off during a healthcare affordability event at the Oval Office.
Newsom, 58, has taken to calling Trump “Dozy Don,” a play on the nickname Trump gave his predecessor Joe Biden—“Sleepy Joe”—to mock the then-president’s apparent decline.
Trump invoked Biden while going on a tangent about aging during an event on Monday, claiming, “I feel the same as I felt 50 years ago.”
“There’ll be a period of time when I don’t tell you that,” he continued, adding that “someday” he might say, “I’m not feeling well.”
“Someday I might say that to you, and you’ll be the first to know,” he said. “Actually, I won’t have to say it because you’ll be able to see it just like you did in the last administration.”
Trump is reportedly fuming that he has faced the same kind of scrutiny that haunted Biden, amid questions over the president’s numerous episodes of drowsiness and other health conditions.
When reached for comment on Tuesday, White House spokesperson Davis Ingle told the Daily Beast in a statement, “President Trump is the sharpest, most accessible, and energetic president in American history. President Trump’s commitment is unwavering and he proves that every single day.”
The White House did not comment on whether the president intends to undergo his annual health assessment, which he last completed on April 11, 2025.
That was before the White House revealed that Trump suffers from chronic venous insufficiency, a condition common in seniors where leg veins struggle to push blood back up to the heart, and before the White House began blaming his chronic bruises on frequent handshaking and his aspirin regimen.
