President Donald Trump appeared as if he could barely keep his eyes open during a press conference on the U.S. strikes on Venezuela and the capture of President Nicolas Maduro.
The president, 79, first gave a rambling, at times incoherent, address to the American people before stepping aside for other top administration officials to deliver further remarks.
But as Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Gen. Dan Caine shared details about the military operation, the president could be seen standing to his left, looking as if he was about to doze off.
Throughout Caine’s remarks, Trump’s eyes repeatedly shut as he swayed back and forth before they would flutter open again.
It was not the first time the president had been on camera, appearing to struggle to keep his eyes open. He has previously shut his eyes during Oval Office events and roundtables while others were speaking.
Trump, the oldest person ever elected president in 2024, has been known to stay up late to post on social media.
The president and his team on Saturday delivered remarks to the press from his club at Mar-a-Lago hours after the U.S. carried out the operation to capture Maduro and his wife.
Trump first shared that the U.S. had carried out what he called a “large scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro” on Truth Social at 4:21 am ET.
Just hours later, the president called into Fox & Friends to boast that he watched the operation in real time from a room at his club in Florida and compared it to watching a “television show.”
The president appeared exhausted as he jumped around on a series of topics when he finally appeared for the press conference, which was scheduled for ET but began late.
As Trump swayed with his eyes fluttering, Caine shared that the president gave the order to move forward at 10:46 pm ET Friday night. The aircraft began launching after that from 20 separate bases, and more than 150 aircraft were in the air last night.
The military arrived at Maduro’s compound at 1:01 am ET overnight. U.S. forces were then back over the water at 3:29 am ET.
The press conference lasted nearly an hour with the president answering multiple questions from reporters before exiting the room.
“It was an assault like people have not seen since World War II,” Trump began on Saturday. “It was a force against a heavily fortified military fortress in the heart of Caracas to bring outlaw dictator Nicolas Maduro to justice.”
The president then rattled off other military operations that have taken place under his leadership around the world before refocusing on the operation in Venezuela again.
“We are going to run the country until such time as we can do it safe, proper and judicious transition,” Trump said. “That has to be judicious because that’s what we’re all about.”
“We’re there now, but we’re going to stay until such time as the proper transition can take place,” Trump claimed moments later.
The president also went off on an unrelated tangent about his administration’s crime crackdown in the U.S. including sending the National Guard into Washington, D.C.
When the president returned to the topic of Venezuela, he confusingly declared, “America will never allow foreign powers to rob our people and drive us back into—and out of our own hemisphere.”
He went on to bring up the Monroe Doctrine, the U.S. foreign policy from the early 1800s against European countries further colonizing the Americas and suggested it would be known as the “Donroe Doctrine” going forward.
When the president later stepped back to the podium to answer questions and was pressed about what it meant for the U.S. to run Venezuela, the president remained largely vague.
He did not rule out the U.S. putting boots on the ground, and even pointed out that U.S. boots were in the country overnight.
Trump also repeatedly claimed that the biggest U.S. oil companies would go into Venezuela and that the oil extracted would pay for the U.S. running the country so that it wouldn’t cost the U.S. anything.
