'He's a laughing stock': Nicolle reacts to Trump ASLEEP on camera AGAIN during 3PM White House event

[0:01] If there's one thing we know about Trump, it's that he's a keen judge of character. [0:04] He's always paying close attention to the habits and qualities of the people around him. [0:08] We've all seen him in meetings, razor sharp, laser focused, locking eyes with everyone around him, [0:14] carefully scrutinizing every word and every gesture, [0:17] taking the true measure of the men and the soon-to-be-fired women [0:20] who make up his administration. [0:22] Sure, to you, it looks like he's asleep, [0:25] but everyone looks like they're sleeping when you're so woke. [0:34] It's undeniable at this point. [0:36] It's an obvious punchline. [0:38] He's a laughingstock, undeniably, justifiably, [0:43] but it's also deeply alarming. [0:46] And it's unprecedented behavior, not just from a sitting American president, [0:50] but from a leader of anything. [0:52] And it happened again yesterday in the middle of the afternoon [0:55] during the White House's own press event in the Oval Office. [1:00] And I cannot articulate clearly enough [1:03] that cameras are only inside the Oval Office [1:06] when the White House press officers bring them into the Oval Office. [1:11] And they only get to stay until the White House press staffers take them out. [1:16] With Cabinet members flanking him, Trump slouched in his chair, [1:22] either bored or just riveted and incapable of staying awake for that which he found riveting. [1:27] But we'll go with bored by what his EPA administrator was saying. [1:30] He just shut his eyes and dozed off in front of the cameras. [1:36] We'll let you watch. [1:39] For so many Americans, clean, beautiful coal is their source of heat, of energy, of warmth, [1:46] of a job, an economy, a community, a family. [1:50] It was regulation after regulation after regulation, [1:52] trying to strangulate out of existence coal, to destroy it, enter President Trump. [2:01] The Democrats were running for power to sit at this desk and to leverage that power [2:07] to destroy these communities, enter President Trump. [2:11] Which is new, for lack of a better word. [2:19] And we'll let you reach your own conclusion about what this means. [2:24] Again, whether he's bored or whether he's sick or whether he's tired or whether he's old. [2:29] But he's definitely not awake at a White House meeting scheduled by the White House, [2:35] alerted by the White House press office at 3 p.m. in the afternoon. [2:40] The White House, for their part, they're usually like, yeah, we're corrupt. [2:45] What are you going to do about it? [2:46] In this case, that's not their posture. [2:48] They're completely triggered and, like, out of their mind about this now viral moment. [2:54] One of the press officers said his eyes are literally open. [2:57] That's true. [2:58] Like, every 11 seconds, they, like, flutter open so you know he's alive. [3:05] Trump is one week shy of his 80th birthday. [3:07] He's been caught sleeping more than a handful of times during major public appearances at the White House, [3:15] including during a meeting with his entire Cabinet. [3:17] And a ceremony meant to give out an award for physical fitness. [3:25] I want to bring in the managing editor of The Bulwark, our contributor, Sam Stein, with me at the table, [3:30] Democratic strategist and Columbia University professor, political analyst, Basil Schmeichel. [3:35] Sam, I mean, there's an argument, I guess, that if he's asleep, he can't do anything scary. [3:41] But he seems to obviously have endurance issues, wakefulness issues, alertness issues. [3:52] And for all of the years of ramming down our throat, wow, he's energetic, he's getting things done. [3:58] You know, strong and wrong is better than whatever it was, right and not a bully, whatever that political trope was. [4:06] He's, he's wrong and asleep now. [4:11] Yeah, I mean, look, I don't begrudge an 80-year-old for taking the occasional nap. [4:17] God knows I take the occasional nap. [4:19] But I'm not president, and I'm not taking a nap while I have my deputies and my Cabinet officials flanked around me telling me how great I am. [4:29] So it is optically a very odd situation. [4:33] And then on top of that, to your point, Nicole, this is a guy who ran and literally, like, two minutes ago, I was watching his event in Wisconsin, [4:42] was talking about how his predecessor in this role, Joe Biden, was always asleep. [4:46] And as Heilman always says, you know, everything's a confession with this guy, and he's very sleepy on the job. [4:52] The reason the White House obviously is quite sensitive about this versus everything else is that they've created this public perception of him as this kind of raging bull who's just going to steamroll his opponents, who never tires of energy. [5:03] And from all we know is he is up at crazy hours at night. [5:06] He has a doom-scrolling habit, obviously, because he posts at all odd hours. [5:11] But maybe that's the problem, is that he's not sort of getting the actual rest that you probably need. [5:17] And it's creating these optically confusing moments and politically problematic ones, which is why the White House reacts so violently against anyone who points it out. [5:27] There are questions about his health. [5:29] He goes up to Walter Reed a lot. [5:32] Here's Dr. Oz responding, no question about that. [5:36] If the president's in such perfect health, why does he keep going back in for checkups? [5:43] I think he likes the results. [5:45] He does really well. [5:47] He aces the test every single day. [5:49] And I do actually believe that he is curious to make sure everything is going in the right direction. [5:55] He's a very meticulous person in so many ways that are often underappreciated. [6:03] He aces the test every single day. [6:06] Why is he taking the test? [6:07] What test is he taking every single day? [6:09] Yeah, that's a really good question. [6:10] What test does he take in? [6:11] And do we actually even believe the results when they're reported? [6:15] You know, I'm looking at the images that you're showing, and I'm watching him in the Oval Office with those young kids. [6:22] If those kids were dozing off in class the way he is in the Oval Office— [6:27] Child Protective Services gets called. [6:28] Yeah, yeah. [6:28] Yeah, I mean, it's like first a note home, and then, like, does your kid not have a place to sleep? [6:33] Like, it's serious. [6:35] And as a Gen Xer, probably paddled, right? [6:37] Right? [6:37] But you can't do that anymore. [6:39] But, right, but no child could go to class without a teacher or a parent intervening if they're behaving that way. [6:47] But yet we're giving—at least a good chunk of this country is giving the president free reign to behave that way in front of others with control of the bureaucracy in the way that he has it. [6:58] And, yeah, I remember all of last year when a lot of this—the same kind of language was thrown at Joe Biden and lamented the fact that so many Democrats were so quick to engage in the same kind of language about their own president. [7:12] And we see how that turned out. [7:14] And I'm not saying that it wasn't warranted. [7:17] But if it was warranted, then it is absolutely warranted now. [7:20] And I'm—you know, in an earlier segment, someone talked about Congress doing their job. [7:27] Congress is watching this, let alone the people that are in the Oval Office that work directly for him. [7:31] But Congress is watching this and just letting him do whatever he wants to do. [7:35] He is solely in—whatever the polling's saying, he is still solely in control of his party. [7:41] He may not have appeal outside of that, but he's still in control of his party. [7:45] And they will continue to cede control to him even as they watch him be Mr. Melatonin all day.