President Donald Trump struggled to keep his eyes open as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth lavished him with praise during a summit.
The 80-year-old president’s daytime drowsiness set in during a roundtable with Hegseth, Republican Sen. David McCormick, billionaire banker Jamie Dimon, and other business leaders at the U.S. Army War College in Pennsylvania on Wednesday.
Trump’s fatigue appeared to set in when Hegseth, 46, began showering him with compliments, saying, “Because of President Trump’s leadership, we have an entirely different department.”
The octogenarian president’s eyes remained shut for several seconds at one point, before he opened them again and turned toward Hegseth in an apparent attempt to stay alert.
But even with his body angled towards Hegseth, Trump appeared motionless and slumping with his eyes shut for roughly 20 seconds as the defense secretary credited him with having “rebuilt” the military twice, so that things like regime change in Venezuela can continue to be done.
Trump, who fired off his first Truth Social of the day at 6:16 a.m., only perked up when Hegseth mentioned the words “president,” with his eyes popping open at that sound.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump’s latest public sleeping fit comes after he was caught with his eyes closed during the nail-biting Game 3 of the NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden last month. Days before that, he drifted off at an agriculture roundtable.
Also this summer, he was captured slumping sideways in his chair with his eyes closed during an Oval Office event in a viral video that caused the White House’s social media operation to melt down, writing, “His eyes are literally open in the clip you posted, you dumba-- mouth-breathers.”
Trump, who gave his predecessor Joe Biden the nickname “Sleepy Joe” to mock the then-president’s cognitive decline, has faced the same kind of scrutiny that haunted Biden, amid questions over his numerous episodes of drowsiness and other health conditions.
The oldest man ever to be inaugurated president, Trump has made frequent mental gaffes and suffered apparent lapses in memory, along with his tendency to doze off during high-level meetings.
Meanwhile, Trump’s appearance at the NATO summit last week thrust concerns about his health back into the spotlight, after he appeared with a swollen right hand and his left hand covered in concealer, and his swollen ankles were seen bulging out of his shoes.
