‘Sleepy Donald’?: Trump accused of dozing off at Memorial Day event, reigniting age concerns

[0:01] Welcome to the studio, Vedika Behel, over by the big board. [0:04] Vedika, good evening to you. [0:05] Good evening, Mark. [0:06] A video that appears to show Donald Trump dozing off, dropping off, sleeping. [0:12] At a Memorial Day ceremony this week has taken the internet by storm, [0:15] particularly as he just completed his latest publicly disclosed health check. [0:21] Tell us about this. [0:22] Well, Mark, a video that appears to show Donald Trump falling asleep [0:25] at a Memorial Day ceremony this Monday has been circulating heavily online. [0:30] And internet users have a lot to say about it. [0:33] It's also reignited rumors about the state of the U.S. president's health. [0:37] Now, in the video, in social media, users say that Trump is fighting sleep [0:42] whilst he listens to the speech given by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth [0:45] and that his eyes appear to be closed for a large portion of the ceremony. [0:49] Now, we need to remember here that this is a ceremony to honor [0:52] and remember those U.S. military personnel who have died while serving in the armed forces. [0:57] And the idea that Trump was asleep at a somber ceremony like this, [1:01] well, that has triggered outrage online. [1:04] Users posted that it is shameful for Trump to have fallen asleep, [1:09] that it shows a lack of respect from the leader of the country. [1:12] They also pointed out that Trump has consistently over the past few years [1:15] attacked his predecessor Joe Biden, calling him Sleepy Joe. [1:19] And they say that it is hypocritical for Trump to therefore be seen [1:23] or appear to be seen dozing off at a national event like this. [1:28] Indeed, one can understand people's anger at seeing that. [1:32] Veda, can you show us some of the reactions to the video? [1:35] Was Trump really asleep? [1:38] Well, Mark, I will say that it is hard to say for sure, [1:41] you know, given the visibly low quality of the video. [1:45] It's unclear if there are any pixels or shadows that are causing tricks [1:49] or giving a false impression. [1:50] It's true that we can't actually see Donald Trump's eyes clearly in the video. [1:55] Now, even when I checked a full stream of the entire event online, [2:00] it didn't actually make it any clearer. [2:02] This is an event. [2:03] This is a video published by C-SPAN in its entirety. [2:06] And again, we can still see the quality [2:08] because of the distance of the camera and the placement of it. [2:11] It's still not much clearer because even J.D. Vance sitting next to him [2:14] does have shadows under his eyes. [2:16] Now, I will say that having watched this full segment [2:19] from the Memorial Day ceremony, [2:21] that although his eyes did appear to be closed, [2:23] Donald Trump was swaying whilst they appeared to be closed. [2:26] He was swaying. He was patting his leg. [2:28] He did appear to yawn at least once. [2:30] Now, I did see some more high-definition images published by news agencies. [2:34] This is one by the Associated Press where we can see Trump a lot more clearly. [2:39] And again, his eyes do appear to be closed in the photo. [2:42] But I wouldn't necessarily say that this snapshot, a moment in time, [2:45] is enough to verify necessarily whether he was asleep. [2:47] But yes, it does appear that he was. [2:50] Now, that being said, this is not the first time [2:53] that he has been accused of dozing off. [2:56] Last December, he was accused of, again, fighting sleep [3:00] in a Cabinet meeting next to Marco Rubio [3:03] in his hours-long Cabinet meeting in December. [3:05] Now, Press Secretary Caroline Levitt defended him, [3:08] saying that he was listening attentively. [3:10] And Trump himself commented a month later [3:12] that it was just boredom, in fact, [3:14] as to why he appeared to be dozing off. [3:16] It wasn't the fact that he was asleep. [3:18] But again, this was not the only time. [3:21] In March, he was again accused of falling asleep [3:23] in Memphis, Tennessee, as he appeared there [3:25] for a security roundtable. [3:28] And just two weeks ago, in fact, [3:30] in the Oval Office, videos went viral of him again [3:33] looking like he had fallen asleep [3:36] whilst he was there for an event on maternal health. [3:38] But the White House has remained steadfast [3:41] and true to Donald Trump defending him in this scenario. [3:43] For example, this video from the Oval Office, [3:46] the White House bit back on social media, [3:49] saying that he was, in fact, just blinking, not asleep. [3:52] Just blinking, not asleep. [3:54] Interesting, though, that Trump admits that he's bored. [3:56] It's quite a thing for a President of the US [3:58] to admit that he's bored. [4:00] The White House has been biting back, as you say, [4:02] more often of late, regarding the US President's health, [4:06] his state of health. [4:07] Well, as we mentioned earlier, [4:08] he underwent his fourth medical, publicly disclosed, [4:11] medical since he returned to office. [4:12] He spent three hours at the Walter Reed Medical Center [4:15] for what the White House said is a preventative check-up. [4:18] Trump himself claimed that everything checked out perfectly. [4:21] But, of course, CNN was covering his health exam [4:24] in great detail, as he is about to turn 80 years old next month, [4:27] and the midterms are coming up in November. [4:29] Now, they pointed to several previous incidents [4:31] that raised concern about his health, [4:33] including analysis from a doctor [4:34] who suggested that Trump struggles to stay awake. [4:38] And, of course, this coverage comes the day [4:39] after that video from Memorial Day. [4:41] Now, the White House's rapid response account [4:44] lashed out at CNN for this coverage, [4:46] attacking the journalist for doing so, [4:49] often using freeze frames from the interviews [4:51] to accuse those people and everyone who appeared [4:53] on the programme and the journalists [4:55] of actually falling asleep to themselves [4:57] as they lie about the state of Donald Trump's health. [4:59] So, the White House has bit back pretty consistently [5:03] about any suggestion that Donald Trump [5:05] isn't at 100% capacity, [5:07] but polling does suggest [5:09] that the public are concerned in the U.S. [5:11] An April survey by Ipsos and The Washington Post [5:14] found that 40% of Americans believe [5:16] that Trump does not have the mental acuity [5:18] to carry out his role as the U.S. president.