President Donald Trump appeared to doze off in the front row of his own UFC birthday celebration, handing critics fresh ammunition and reigniting calls for his removal from office.
Footage circulating from UFC Freedom 250 on the White House South Lawn shows Trump, who turned 80 on Sunday, seated beside UFC chief Dana White with his eyes closed and his head slumping to one side, according to the Mirror and various observers.
Anti-Trump commentator Ed Krassenstein pounced on the clip. "How does this even happen?" he wrote, sharing video of the apparent nap. "Trump appears to have fallen asleep at the UFC event at the White House? 25th Amendment Now!"
The progressive account Call to Activism amplified it as "BREAKING," announcing that Trump "HAS FALLEN ASLEEP AT HIS 80TH BIRTHDAY UFC FREEDOM 250 EVENT."
The moment drew notice from fight fans, too. One MMA account, MMA Joey, claimed Trump "fell asleep during the Bo Nickal fight" and that White "had to slap him" to wake him during the finish, though that version of events could not be independently confirmed.
According to the Mirror, the footage set off a wave of comments questioning the president's fitness, with one user sarcastically writing, "Oh…yeah…he's fit to lead the country," and another insisting he should resign because he is "too old."
The episode echoes one from a week earlier. The Mirror noted that Trump had been widely criticized for appearing to nod off during Game 3 of the NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden, prompting Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to post "WAKE TF UP" and the Lincoln Project to mock the outing as "the most expensive taxpayer-funded nap." Detractors have since taken to calling him "Commander-in-Sleep."
The White House has consistently rejected that narrative. As the Mirror reported, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told a congressional hearing this month that the opposite was true, describing Trump as working "inhumane hours" and phoning him in the dead of night. A White House spokesman has described the president's energy as "unmatched," and Trump's physician recorded a 30/30 score on a cognitive test at his late-May physical, which the White House billed as a "perfect bill of health."
Whether the president was asleep or simply watching a screen with his eyes shut, as the Mirror put it, the image of Trump appearing to drift off at his own birthday party all but guaranteed the questions would keep coming.