SLEEPY TRUMP AND THE 'TREASONOUS' REPORTS OF HIS DECLINING HEALTH
With Marco Rubio delivering a foreign policy update to his right, Donald Trump’s eyes began to flutter. Then they closed, for several seconds. Whether he actually fell asleep is unclear, but the US president did appear drowsy and disoriented.
It was the latest public appearance to prompt scrutiny of Mr Trump’s health, undermining the energetic persona he promotes through his relentless social media operation and his long, often improvised, press conferences.
Questions about the 79-year-old’s fitness have circulated for years, but they have sharpened in recent months after a series of sleepy moments on camera and bruising on his hand. At a Sept 11 commemoration at the Pentagon, the right side of his face appeared to droop down, sparking concerns of a stroke – which were denied by the White House.
A New York Times report cataloguing his health provoked the president’s fury. In a 500-word Truth Social post on Wednesday, Mr Trump – the oldest president to be inaugurated – insisted none of his predecessors had ever “worked as hard as me”.
“My hours are the longest, and my results are among the best,” he wrote. “I go out of my way to do long, thorough, and very boring medical examinations… Some [doctors] have even said they have never seen such Strong Results.”
He then accused the newspaper of “seditious… perhaps even treasonous” reporting.
Mr Trump’s political rivals have seized the opportunity. Gavin Newsom, widely seen as the early frontrunner for the 2028 Democratic nomination, regularly mocks the president on X, claiming he is in “poor physical condition”.
Concerns began to surface during Mr Trump’s first term nearly 10 years ago. When he entered office in 2017 at the age of 70, he was already the oldest president to do so. His Covid diagnosis towards the end of his term in 2020 only heightened anxieties about his health.
Joe Biden, 83, whose own time in office was plagued by health concerns, temporarily took the record as the oldest person inaugurated, but Mr Trump reclaimed the title when he was sworn in for his second term in January at the age of 78 and seven months – five months older than his predecessor.
This time around, speculation began almost immediately. During Emmanuel Macron’s visit to the White House in February, photographers captured a dark bruise on the front of Mr Trump’s right hand. It had been disguised beneath a layer of makeup closely matching his skin tone.
The White House insisted that the mark was simply the result of “shaking hands all day every day”, an explanation that persuaded few. One Getty Images photographer, Chip Somodevilla, appears to have made it his mission to document the president’s hands whenever possible. It is understood to be frustrating the White House.
Speculation about Mr Trump’s condition reached fever pitch in September when rumours swirled online that he had died and been replaced by JD Vance, the vice-president, who days earlier said he was ready to take over if needed. However, those rumours were quickly quashed when Mr Trump appeared for a round of golf.
This week, fresh bruising and makeup were once again visible on Mr Trump’s hands, accompanied by two plasters.
Asked about them, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, recited her earlier explanation: “President Trump is a man of the people and he meets more Americans and shakes their hands on a daily basis than any other president in history.”
The recurring bruises have attracted particular interest because they are just one of many signs that Mr Trump may be slowing down.
At a cabinet meeting earlier this month, Mr Trump seemed to drift off as his cabinet secretaries spoke. His eyes shut repeatedly, echoing an incident last month when he appeared to doze during a meeting of health executives in the Oval Office, only rousing himself when a guest fainted.
Doctors have been unconvinced by the White House explanations. Dr Boback Berookhim, a New York-based urologist and men’s sexual health specialist, said officials appeared to be trying to “hide” something. “It could be from a blood draw, an insect bite or potentially from hitting his hand against something,” he told the Daily Mail.
Dr Neal Patel, a primary care physician in Orange County, California, also doubted the handshake theory. “Shaking too many hands is a little bit a stretch,” he said. “President Trump has had something like this in the past, and from my experience and my patients, I would put that lower on the list of possibilities.”
Mr Trump has also fuelled speculation by publicising his medical tests without offering further details. While travelling in Asia last month, he disclosed that he had undergone an MRI scan at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in early October.
A report published about the “semi-annual physical” revealed that cardiovascular and abdominal imaging was conducted “as part of” the MRI but did not reveal whether other parts of the body had been scanned.
MRI scans of the brain, spinal cord and peripheral nervous system, for example, are common for diagnosing neurological conditions including stroke, tumours or degenerative conditions.
“I have no idea what they analysed,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One. “But whatever they analysed, they analysed it well, and they said that I had as good a result as they’ve ever seen.”
Regardless of the cause, there is clear evidence that the president’s pace has slowed. During his first year in office in 2017, Mr Trump’s scheduled events began at 10.31am on average, whereas now they begin at 12.08pm. His days tend to end at roughly the same time, shortly after 5pm, but the hours between have shortened considerably.
The volume of official appearances has also dropped. Between Jan 20 and Nov 25 2017, Mr Trump held 1,688 official events. Over the same period this year, he has taken part in 1,029, a drop of 39 per cent.
Domestic travel has declined, though he has increased the number of short, high-profile foreign trips, including whistle-stop trips to Israel and Egypt.
Democrats have not missed the opening. Mr Newsom recently posted a mock medical letter claiming the president “falls asleep” in meetings and needs to “lie down” to watch television.
Jimmy Kimmel, the late-night host, also questioned Mr Trump’s condition this week, singling out the hand bruising.
“Something is wrong,” he told viewers. “The guy who’s running our country is being given unscheduled dementia tests. He’s being given MRIs. He has mystery bruises he’s covering with Maybelline. And we’re supposed to accept this idea that he’s some cross between Chris Hemsworth and Albert Einstein?”
Analysts believe the public is not being given a complete picture. That is far from unprecedented, though. American presidents have a long history of downplaying illness, particularly in an era when Mr Biden’s tenure was dominated by scrutiny of his cognitive decline.
The former president was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer shortly after leaving office last year.
Matthew Dallek, a political historian at George Washington University, told the New York Times that presidential aides often downplayed rumours about the health of their commanders-in-chief.
Referring to Mr Trump, he said: “The people around him are similar to Biden’s aides. They would talk as if we’re living in a little bit of a fantasy world.
“Trump, in that way, with the help of his aides and his doctors, have created this fiction about his health to hide the hard, cold truth that he is 79 and one of the oldest people to ever occupy the Oval Office.”
2025-12-12T13:50:44Z
