Members of Donald Trump’s inner circle are scrambling to explain away his increasingly public lapses as he enters his ninth decade.
The president, who turned 80 on Sunday, has continued to draw public concern following appearances in which he appears to doze off during Oval Office meetings, White House events, and, most recently, a Knicks game.
At the same time, the White House has refused to acknowledge such incidents—or even that Trump is the oldest president ever inaugurated.
Senior White House officials are now insisting that moments in which the president closes his eyes and appears to doze off are actually instances of him leaning in to “better hear someone speaking,” according to the New York Times.
Yet, just this week, the president was seen leaning away from Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, with his eyes shut.
White House officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast on the contrast.
Additionally, Trump’s allies have kept other aspects of his health closely guarded, including the purplish bruises he often sports on one or both hands. The White House has claimed that the bruises are the result of Trump’s excessive handshaking. However, the dark marks have at times been prominent on the backs of both hands, fueling speculation about what else may be obscured from public view.
An April poll conducted by Washington Post/ABC News/Ipsos found that fewer than half of U.S. adults believe Trump has the mental sharpness or physical health to serve effectively as president.
“President Trump’s sharpness, unmatched energy, and historic accessibility stand in stark contrast to what we saw during the last administration when Democrats and the legacy media intentionally covered up Joe Biden’s serious mental and physical decline from the American people,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle has previously told the Daily Beast.
“President Trump is the sharpest and most accessible president in American history who is working nonstop to solve problems and deliver on his promises, and he remains in excellent health.”
Meanwhile, the Times reported on Sunday that Trump at times arrives at the Oval Office as late as 11 a.m. While the president’s days often run long, a 15-page schedule reviewed by the paper suggests that Trump’s days are often unstructured and erratic, with meetings running over as he rambles and goes off topic.
One member of Trump’s inner circle told the Times that the president has appeared “more tired than usual” as of late, raising his late-night Truth Social tirades as a potential factor. In June, a Daily Beast analysis found that Trump’s 861 posts and reposts in May were his most ever in a single month this term.
In response, the White House told the Daily Beast that Truth Social “has never been hotter.”
“The American people have never had a president as transparent as President Trump, who shares his thoughts with them in real time on all the important issues of the day,” White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales said in a statement.
“President Trump is a one-of-a-kind leader who has his finger on the pulse of the people better than any of his predecessors.”
There could, perhaps, be another reason why Trump’s aides are hellbent on shutting down any discussion of the president’s age: Trump himself. Publicly and privately, the president has recoiled at mentions of his own age.
“I just wanted to wish you a happy birthday,” the president said in a video to Dr. Mehmet Oz, who turned 66 on Wednesday. “You don’t have to wish me a happy birthday, because I’m not happy about that birthday. It’s a number that I never thought really too much about. It’s not a number I like, but I’m here nonetheless.”
