After a footage surfaced of a recent cabinet meeting in which he appeared to fall asleep, U.S. President Donald Trump joked on Thursday that he was not asleep but simply bored by the long session.
Video from last month’s Cabinet meeting circulated widely online, showing Trump with his eyes shut for stretches while key secretaries spoke and national policy matters were discussed. Social media and political rivals quickly seized on the imagery, fueling renewed scrutiny of Trump’s alertness during official duties.
When asked about the incident by reporters, Trump denied that he had fallen asleep at any point. Instead, he said the meeting was “pretty boring,” and that closing his eyes briefly was a matter of patience rather than fatigue. “I wasn’t asleep,” he told journalists. “It got pretty boring, you know.”
Trump: We’re not going to go through the whole table because the last time we had a press conference, it lasted for three hours, and some people said, he closed his eyes. Look, it got pretty boring.
I just closed them because I wanted to get the hell out of here. I didn’t… pic.twitter.com/xM0KjVSIH7
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) January 29, 2026
The incident dates back to a Cabinet meeting in December that stretched for more than three hours. In footage captured publicly, Trump is seen with his eyelids gradually drooping as various department heads spoke.
Trump’s allies in the administration have offered alternative defenses. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt previously said that when Trump appears to close his eyes during meetings, he is actually “actively listening” and absorbing information, even if it looks like dozing. A senior staffer also described Trump’s posture during such moments as a natural note-taking pose, not a sign of sleep.
This is not the first time Trump has addressed questions about his alertness in official settings. In an interview late last year, he rejected suggestions that he had fallen asleep during other White House meetings, saying cameras simply caught him blinking and resting his eyes. “Sometimes they’ll take a picture of me blinking,” he said.
At age 79, Trump is the oldest sitting U.S. president and, like his predecessor, Joe Biden, has faced numerous concerns about his health from the public. This past fall and winter, Trump underwent multiple medical exams, including what the White House described as a “scheduled follow-up evaluation” at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. According to his physician, Navy Capt. Sean Barbabella, the president remains in “exceptional health” after comprehensive imaging and lab testing, part of his ongoing preventive care plan.
Trump recently explained the frequent bruises on his hands by attributing it to a bump on a table and his long-standing habit of taking a high daily dose of aspirin to improve his “blood flow” but that doctors say isn’t medically necessary. He has also embraced cognitive testing as part of his health narrative. He has repeatedly stated that he “aced” cognitive exams and criticized media reporting on age-related health concerns, even calling some coverage “perhaps even treasonous.”
