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Photo: Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post/Getty Images

The day before Thanksgiving, Donald Trump railed against the New York Times for publishing a front-page story with the headline “Shorter Days, Signs of Fatigue: Trump Faces Realities of Aging in Office.” In a lengthy Truth Social tirade, the president insisted that while the “Creeps” at the Times “did a hit piece on me that I am perhaps losing my Energy,” the facts “show the exact opposite.” (He also called the story’s female co-author “ugly.”)

Trump could have bolstered his point by not nodding off in public for at least a week. But alas, during Tuesday afternoon’s Cabinet meeting, he was spotted closing his eyes “for extended periods … at times seeming to nod off,” as the Washington Post reported:

It was the second time in less than a month that Trump has appeared to struggle to stay awake as his advisers speak about the administration’s initiatives. A Washington Post analysis of multiple video feeds of the meeting Tuesday showed that during nine separate instances, Trump’s eyes were closed for extended periods or he appeared to struggle to keep them open, amounting cumulatively to nearly six minutes. The episode was similar to an Oval Office event on Nov. 6 when the president spent nearly 20 minutes battling to keep his eyes open.

For years, Trump argued that Joe Biden was too old to perform his duties as president. Before he fell asleep at Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting, Trump actually referred to his predecessor as “Sleepy Joe” and proclaimed himself healthier than ever.

“I’ll let you know when there’s something wrong,” he said. “There will be some day that’s going to happen to all of us. But right now, I think I’m sharper than I was 25 years ago. But who the hell knows?”

If you want to give Trump the benefit of the doubt, it does seem like what’s going on here might be less about age and more about his wildly unhealthy sleep habits. Following Tuesday’s early-afternoon naps, Trump stayed up late posting on Truth Social. The time stamp shows his last repost went up at 1:22 a.m.:

And this wasn’t some unusual late night due to the Tennessee special election. On Monday night, the president “posted over 160 times” between 7 and 11 p.m., as the Daily Beast noted. It’s common to see Trump’s posts go up as late as the 2 a.m. hour and start up again early in the morning.

During an interview last month, Vice-President J.D. Vance and Sean Hannity commiserated about how Trump barely sleeps and expects everyone around him to be up all night too.

“[Cabinet officials] are always like, ‘You’re so lucky because if we go on a 20-hour trip somewhere, he does not sleep the entire time,’” Vance said. “And of course if he’s not sleeping, if he’s working, he expects everybody else to be working too.”

Trump’s allies often claim that this behavior is proof of his very manly stamina. As Vance put it, “The energy that the guy has is really off the charts.”

On Monday night, Laura Ingraham and Dr. Marc Siegel, senior medical analyst for Fox News, gave this argument a new twist. Trump defenders usually focus on his supposedly superhuman ability to go without sleep and say nothing about him nodding off during the day. Ingraham and Siegel acknowledged that Trump has been napping in public, but they portrayed this as a sign of genius.

“If you sleep three hours or four hours a night, you’re probably going to close your eyes, whether you’re 79 or 49,” Ingraham said.

Siegel agreed, adding, “Thomas Edison believed in the ten-minute nap, by the way. We wouldn’t have electricity, right?”

Ingraham: We all know he doesn’t sleep. I’m not a big sleeper either. On occasion, I close my eyes if someone is talking too long. Big deal. The results speak for themselves. If you sleep 3-4 hours a night, you’re probably going to close your eyes. Siegel: Edison believed in… pic.twitter.com/MGarDzuZ4C

— Acyn (@Acyn) December 3, 2025

Okay, but if Trump has some control over this weird sleep schedule rather than having it thrust upon him by old age, maybe he could … stop? It seems like being awake for a televised Cabinet meeting he convened should be a bigger priority than posting one more Truth Social insult in the wee hours. Just a suggestion!

Trump Sleeps in Cabinet Meeting, Rants Online All Night

Trump Sleeps in Cabinet Meeting, Rants Online All Night