Comatose Trump's own words are coming back to haunt him
Raw StoryI had a great uncle who was notorious for sleeping sitting straight up in his chair. His eyes would glaze over as family conversations swirled around him. Inevitably, his eyes would shut, and whether it was a dream or the shrill sound of his wife’s laugh, his eyes would pop open. He was always teased about his frequent chair napping, and he always, always denied he was sleeping. “Just resting my eyes,” he would insist. Then he’d “rest his eyes” again a few moments later. Nobody was fooled. Asked by Rep. Ted Lieu whether he’d ever seen Trump fall asleep during a Cabinet meeting, Secretary of State Rubio responded defiantly like my great uncle. “That’s false. I’ve never seen him fall asleep. On the contrary, the guy doesn’t sleep — he calls me at 2 in the morning. He calls me at 5 in the morning.” Lieu’s response was to pull up a clip of Trump with his eyes shut while Rubio himself was speaking at a Cabinet meeting. Then he played another one. Rubio, it turns out, might be the one who is just resting his eyes, asleep at the switch while his hypersomniac boss drifts into never-never land. Look, I get it. Meetings are boring, especially when you don’t have the floor. I’ve spent three decades in corporate America. I know exactly what it looks like when the boss, and myself, and others in the room, are losing the battle with drooping eyelids in a long meeting. Most of us have been there. However, most of us weren’t 80 years old, running on a diet of fast food and anger, and posting Truth Social memes until 3 a.m., and theoretically steering the most consequential country on the planet the next day. There is a whopping difference between a bored executive or subordinate and a president who can’t stay awake at his own events, and the documented record of the last seven months makes it impossible to look away. November 6, 2025: During a White House drug pricing announcement in the Oval Office, Getty photographer Andrew Harnik captured Trump slumped at the Resolute Desk, eyes closed, surrounded by aides who kept right on talking. The Washington Post reviewed multiple video feeds and calculated Trump spent nearly 20 minutes fighting to keep his eyes open. Sure sounds like Uncle Lawrence. December 2, 2025 . At a two-hour Cabinet meeting, Trump repeatedly shut his eyes while his own senior officials spoke. He later offered this explanation, which I will grant is at least honest: “They’re boring as hell.” He added: “I didn’t sleep. I just closed them because I wanted to get the hell outta here.” Spoken like my cranky Uncle Lawrence. February 19, 2026 : Two and a half hours into his own “Board of Peace” Gaza summit — a joke of a meeting he convened, with leaders from two dozen countries that no one has heard of — cameras caught Trump with his eyes closed. He didn't sleep. He was just deeply concentrating. With his eyes shut. For an extended period. Wake up Uncle Lawrence! May 11, 2026 : During a maternal health event in the Oval Office, video showed Trump’s eyes closed for roughly 17 seconds at the Resolute Desk. The White House’s official Rapid Response account fired back at a Reuters post, one that hadn’t even accused Trump of sleeping, just included a photo, with: *“He was blinking, you absolute moron.” The response became an instant meme. Rep. Lieu replied : “That is a verrrrrrrrryyyyy long blink.” The Democrats’ official account dubbed him “ Commander-in-Sleep .” May 26, 2026 : Memorial Day at Arlington. At the National Memorial Day Observance, with Gold Star families in the audience honoring the 13 service members killed in the Iran war, cameras caught Trump with his head bowed and eyes closed during Pete Hegseth’s remarks. He was sleeping standing up! That’s something Uncle Lawrence could never do. It should be noted that his third hospital visit in 13 months came the following day. The White House said he wasn’t sleeping. This whole thing is so comatose with irony. Trump spent years weaponizing “Sleepy Joe” against Biden. In 2021, when Biden appeared to nod off at a climate conference, Trump sent a mass email : “Nobody that has true enthusiasm and belief in a subject will ever fall asleep!” He yammered and hammered the “Sleepy Joe” label through 2022, 2023, and deep into the 2024 campaign. “He falls asleep at every single event,” Trump barked in June 2024. And if this doesn’t make you double-over with laughter, Trump once said , “How do you fall asleep when cameras are raging, right?” Then, on May 7, 2026, right in the middle of his own napping spree, Trump posted an AI-generated image on Truth Social showing Biden asleep in the Oval Office wearing pajamas, with Barack Obama wheeling in a box labeled “AUTOPEN.” Caption: *“A highly accurate depiction of the Sleepy Joe Biden Administration. Tremendous damage done but, WE’RE BACK!!!”* Admittedly, my Uncle Lawrence was not a warm and fuzzy guy, but he wasn’t a conceited, hypocritical jerk like Donald Trump. And what’s more? Uncle Lawrence was in his mid-80s, so his battle with keeping his eyes open is a harbinger for Trump. Trump turns 80 in a week. These incidents will not decrease. They will increase. His eyes will become heavier and heavier. The question Rep. Lieu was really asking Rubio what happens in the situation room, for example, when the cameras aren’t there . It never got answered, because Rubio just kept talking with his eyes wide shut. So while Trump sleeps on the job, don’t worry, because your grocery bill isn't keeping him awake. Or your gas bills, your electric bills. Trump, who promised he’d fix all of it on Day One, has more pressing matters — his eye-lids pressing against each other.
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