Donald Trump closed his eyes and leaned back in his opulent gold chair at a lavish greeting ceremony given in his honor in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday. appeared to doze off for a while.
A video of the 78-year-old president appearing to be startled awake just seconds after someone talked to him went viral on social media.
The title of one Daily Beast article, “Sleepy Trump Caught on Camera Nodding Off at Summit in Saudi,” was a witty allusion to the drowsy moniker that was once used for President Joe Biden. Journalist Aaron Rupar said on X, “Trump is struggling to keep his eyes open.”
Critics argued the president’s recent disembarkation from Air Force One after a 15-hour flight was part of a pattern rather than a justification for his apparent weariness.
Another widely circulated image from Wednesday’s meeting in Riyadh with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Syrian ministers showed Trump slumping into his chair with his chin tucked to his chest. Moreover, spectators and journalists aren’t the only ones making these remarks.
Trump may be depending more and more on Melania for both emotional and physical assistance, according to White House officials who spoke to the Daily Mail last month. According to one source, “it’s possible that he is pursuing Melania for both emotional
However, Trump associates are now responding to these “false smears” in exclusive remarks to the Daily Mail.
It wouldn’t be astonishing to witness some physical weakening as the president matures. Trump will overtake Biden as the oldest sitting president in US history in the final year of his second term.
Some, however, are going beyond the natural aging process and claiming that Trump’s health is the result of a marked decline in his mental and physical acuity.
Lawrence O’Donnell, the primetime anchor for MSNBC, said that Trump might be exhibiting “early-stage dementia” or “signs of mental illness.”
The Commander-in-Chief Trump is slowing down, according to Timothy L. O’Brien, senior executive editor of Bloomberg Opinion. He told MSNBC last week: “Watching how he answers questions now compared to Trump 1.0, he slurs his words a little, he looks weary, he is slouched.”
He fears that he will follow in his father’s footsteps and end up in his 90s with dementia and Alzheimer’s. And I believe that load has been with him forever,” he continued.
In 1999, Trump’s father, Fred, died of Alzheimer’s disease and pneumonia at the age of 93. Given that Alzheimer’s is partially inherited, Trump might be more susceptible to the illness if his father had it.
Last year, Trump’s nephew Fred Trump III told People that he worries Trump might be following in his father’s footsteps: “Like anyone else, I’ve seen his decline.” However, I perceive it as being similar to my grandfather’s deterioration. It is simply untrue for anyone who wishes to think that dementia did not run in the Trump family.
Others have unjustly drawn comparisons between Trump and Biden, whose cognitive decline—and a purported White House cover-up of it—is the subject of the shocking new book “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,” written by CNN host Jake Tapper and Axios correspondent Alex Thompson.
Based on interviews with senior Democrats, the book details a huge attempt by authorities to keep the public from understanding the true extent of Biden’s cognitive deterioration.
Their study claims that Biden was so compromised by the end of his term that, despite George Clooney being one of his most prominent supporters, he was unable to identify Clooney at a Democratic fundraiser in Los Angeles in June 2024.
They add, “Many people standing there could see that the president was unaware of George Clooney’s identity.” According to reports, another VIP guest from Hollywood remarked: “It was like watching someone who was not alive.” It was just terrible.
The authors claim that between January 1, 2023, and April 27, 2024, Biden engaged in only four public appearances before 10:00 am and just twelve public appearances after 6:00 pm, most of which were off-camera.
Around that time, Biden’s physical condition deteriorated to the point where his advisors reportedly discussed the possibility that he would need a wheelchair if he were elected again.
Finally, “Original Sin” reveals that White House personnel recorded Biden’s video appearances using numerous cameras, concealing his faltering speech using “jump cuts” (shifting from one view to another).
However, the harsh criticism of Trump’s every error contrasts sharply with the lack of concern that many commentators displayed for Biden’s struggles.
In June 2020, for instance, the New York Times recorded Trump during his first term cautiously descending a tall ramp at the US Military Academy at West Point.
“Trump’s Halting Walk Down Ramp Raises New Health Questions,” was the headline.
One title in the New York Times’ four-year-old piece about Biden’s more obvious physical limitations read, “How Misleading Videos Are Trailing Biden as He Battles Age Doubts.”
The irony of this apparent discrimination may be lost on the commenters.
Just like with Biden, questions about Trump’s mental acuity aren’t going away,” Democratic strategist Max Burns wrote in an opinion piece for The Hill last week. “If the scandal around Biden’s cognitive decline taught us anything, it’s that the American people deserve to know if their president is mentally up for the job,” he wrote. “Trump should spare our country years of doubt and speculation by agreeing to sit for a public cognitive exam.”
It’s unclear if Trump would accept that challenge, but some close to the president believe it’s a political ploy.
In order to secure trillions of dollars in investments, President Trump is touring the globe. According to one Trump insider who spoke to the Daily Mail, “these false smears are a clear attempt to cover up for the revelation that Joe Biden’s aides were preparing to put him in a wheelchair.”
“Trump Derangement Syndrome is the only verifiable disease and obvious diagnosis that is plain to see,” concurred another insider who has known the president throughout his political career and communicates with him weekly. Staffers a third his age are exhausted by President Trump. He’s in front of the cameras every day, and I talk to him a lot. Trump is in charge of negotiating trade, peace, hostage, tax, and investment agreements. Biden was considered to have accomplished something by being able to walk and talk.
There is no denying that Biden’s sparse public appearances stand in stark contrast to Trump’s hectic schedule of mentally and physically demanding activities.
During his speech in Riyadh on Tuesday, Trump stood for more over an hour. He regularly has impromptu meetings with the media and responds to inquiries immediately. He spoke to US servicemen at Al Udeid Air Base after arriving in Qatar on Wednesday. He landed in the United Arab Emirates on Thursday.
In February, Trump told the New York Post that his workdays start at six in the morning and end close to midnight.
He stated, “There are no ideas of leisure, no beach visits like Sleepy Joe Biden’s, and no dozing off in front of the media.”
Their assertions are supported by a White House medical report released in April that stated Trump was in “excellent health” and had “no abnormalities” in neurological and cognitive testing.
The truth must be accepted even by critics.
His body mass index was slightly above the obese cutoff point in 2020. Then, according to Dr. David Kessler, a former Biden science advisor, Trump lost 20 pounds this month, changing his weight from obese to overweight, in the Atlantic this week. Trump came to the conclusion that his “LDL (the ‘bad’ cholesterol) has dropped dramatically in recent years.”
The president simply responded, “It’s a pretty well known test,” when reporters questioned him shortly after about the scope of his neurological examination.
He added, seemingly unconcerned: “Whatever it is. I got them all right.