President Donald Trump had a ready excuse for the cameras — and it didn’t land the way he intended.
After being spotted dozens of times with his eyes closed or nodding his head at roundtable meetings at the White House and other public spaces, POTUS earned the nickname — Dozy Don.
Trump attempted to explain his repeated naps in front of officials during a recent cabinet meeting, where he humiliated his administration by blaming others for his behavior.
Suddenly, the visual wasn’t just about Trump looking disengaged — it was about a throwaway remark turned into an uncomfortable spotlight for the people seated around the president.
United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio and United States Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth were each seated next to the president, and he named them in his rambling admission.
About 20 minutes into the Cabinet meeting on January 29, Trump admitted he closes his eyes during meetings because they are “boring.”
As he announced that a few other people would speak, he exclaimed, “They are not going to go through the whole table, because the last time we had a press conference, it lasted for three hours.”
Liar pic.twitter.com/PnEzwmoOhe
— Mary Lapointe (@MLapointe47) January 30, 2026
“Some people said, ‘He closed his eyes.’ Look, it got pretty boring, No offense,” Trump continued as the room burst into laughter. “I love these people. I love these people, but there are a lot of people. It was a little bit on the boring side. But I didn’t sleep,” he claimed.
“I just closed them because I wanted to get the hell out of there,” he added. “I didn’t sleep. I don’t sleep much. Some of them got me in a blink. When you go like…,” as he closed his eyes for a moment. “They took me at the closed segment of my cycle. They said, ‘He’s sleeping!'”
Trump then looked at Rubio and Hegseth and said, “And Marco‚ between these two guys, if I was sleeping, they would be waking me up. They would be knocking me. ‘You’ve got to wake up, Boss.’ We have had — we are the most transparent presidency, by far.”
After the video was shared on social media, folks had a lot to say about Trump’s comments about his frequent naps. “So much for sleepy Joe… Trump’s nicknames were always pure projection,” noted one user on X.
Several users remarked about the people in the room laughing extremely hard at the president’s jokes. “And all of the sycophants laugh like trained seals. Worst administration ever.”
Another said, “If a president’s own meeting feels slow to him, imagine how everyone else in the room was holding up.”
@naturalmysticalvybez The balancing act to keep the president awake #President Trump falls asleep and started snoring. Even the kids in the room notice that the president fell asleep during a meeting with farmers. ##maga##trump##sleepydon##usa ♬ original sound – Natural Mystical
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is rumored to be planning a run for president in 2028, also weighed in. “Grandpa Trump finds being President of the United States ‘boring.’ Good to know.”
Newsom’s post prompted several responses, including people who cheered over his latest jab at Trump, while others kept slamming Trump personally.
“Then why doesn’t he leave if it’s so boring. Not like he is doing anything good,” said one person. Two social media users in tears wrote, “This was absolutely hilarious lol” and “Haha this is CRAZY talk. We all saw it on video man, just own it and move on.“
It seems that Trump forgot he had nodded off during a morning conference at Mar-a-Lago on Jan. 3. As Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan Caine spoke about the U.S. military operation in Venezuela that led to the capture of Nicolás Maduro, Trump fell asleep while standing behind Caine.
He repeatedly closed his eyes while standing during remarks. Rubio was also standing behind the general and looked over at Trump several times, concerned about his public nap, as senior officials continued the briefing.
Observers said the moment wasn’t just a brief blink but a sustained struggle to stay alert, with footage showing his eyes fluttering and his mouth appearing slack as he tried to remain upright throughout the near-hour conference.
Trump’s team insists he is healthy and that briefly closing his eyes is simply “resting his eyes,” but the accumulation of these visuals has kept questions alive.
Following the Jan. 29 Cabinet meeting, Trump refused to take questions from reporters. Maybe he needed a nap.
