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‘This Man’: Trump Struggles, Completely Loses His Composure During Awkward Dinner Moment While Leavitt Tries — and Fails — to Hide Her Reaction

Posted byBy Nicole Duncan-Smith | Published on: CommentsComments (0)

President Donald Trump sat at the head table Friday night as the black-tie dinner unfolded around him.

Despite awards being given out and a celebrity magician being in the house, something else was the lead story in headlines a day later.

The event was a scaled-back redo of the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, rescheduled after the original April gathering was cut short by an apparent attempted assassination against the president.

Trump appeared to repeatedly doze off at Friday’s White House Correspondents’ dinner, even getting called out by the guest performer, in the latest of several public moments raising health questions. (Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

The night opened with Trump forced to sit through a video roasting him over press freedom, followed by an even more uncomfortable moment like when The Wall Street Journal was honored for its reporting on a letter Trump allegedly sent to Jeffrey Epstein.

By the time he got up to deliver his own speech, the long night appeared to already be catching up with him and the guests, according to Vanity Fair.

Cameras repeatedly caught his eyes growing heavy and his eyelids sinking lower.

The struggle grew more visible once the ceremony moved into its award presentations. As journalists were called up to accept honors for their coverage of his administration, Trump appeared to nod off completely during the Beckmann Awards. He only seemed to jolt back when thunderous applause rolled through the hotel ballroom.

Things got harder to ignore once the evening’s special performer took the stage.

During his performance, mentalist Oz Pearlman noticed Trump sitting with his eyes closed and seized the moment with a playful ad-lib. “Mr. President, don’t fall asleep on me,” Pearlman joked, drawing laughter from the audience as Trump opened his eyes and smiled. He seemed to note that he was caught.

Later during his set, according to The Washington Post, it seemed that he drifted off for a second time. Once might have been forgivable. Twice was much harder to explain away.

In a separate part of his act, he actually asked the president to keep his eyes closed.

This was not one of the times that social media zeroed in on.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, seated nearby, wasn’t spared either.

Cameras caught her peeking over to her boss before patting him on the back when journalists took jabs at him on the mic.

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Critics piled on, believing that, unlike past incidents where his team could argue the footage was ambiguous, the mother of two was sitting close enough to know exactly what happened.

Social media reactions piled up fast.

X user Decoding Fox News made a montage of the times he appeared to be resting his eyes.

One commenter wrote, “He appeared to wanna fall asleep while talking.”

Another posted a longer rant questioning Trump’s fitness for the job, writing, “This man has no business at all being in charge of anything let alone the United States! He is totally asleep at the White House Correspondents Dinner.

It must be exhausting turning everything you touch to sh-t. Everyday images of him sleeping during meetings during official events and probably briefings. TRumpelstiltskin has to be stopped!”

A third joked, “Well, get rid of him while hes asleep. Just wheel him out into an old folks home.” A fourth wrote,”The only good thing about him sleeping is he can’t do any damage when he’s asleep.”

Daily Beast readers had their own takes.

One admitted, “To be fair, I think I’d have a hard time keeping my eyes open for that ‘gala.'” Another joked, “I wonder if KKKaroline had a spare binky and blankie in her bag she could have loaned him.” A third asked, “Leavitt looks weird. What did she do to her face?” A fourth simply wanted to know, “Where’s Melania?”

This isn’t the first time the administration has had to answer for Trump appearing to lose consciousness in public.

Back in May, a photo of him with his eyes shut during an Oval Office event prompted the White House Rapid Response account to insist he was simply “blinking.”

The following month, on June 26, Trump was again caught on camera during a meeting with conservative faith leaders, his head drooping as Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick spoke just behind him. The White House still maintains his excellent health and that the left-wing media and social media are fanning flames to suggest he is incompetent.

Friday’s dinner adds another chapter to a pattern the White House has struggled to explain away, and after this latest round of footage the “blinking” defense may be an even tougher sell than it was earlier.

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