'Panic all the time': Trump allies reportedly worried about president's new meeting habit
Donald Trump appearing to doze off in several cabinet meetings is causing "panic all the time" for his administration.
Those who are seen speaking as the president rests his eyes have no idea how to react according to biographer Michael Wolff, who says they're at a loss of what to do when Trump falls asleep in public. Speaking on a recent edition of Inside Trump's Mind, Wolff suggested Trump was not only "bored" with the presidency but that he was causing trouble for his administration by losing focus in publicised meetings.
He said, "I mean, you can’t wake him up. Also, the cameras are running. Everybody is in a low-level panic now all of the time about Trump falling asleep because then he gets mad. He gets angry. He essentially blames the people around him for the fact that he fell asleep."
"You’re on camera, so you can’t jostle him... So nobody knows what to do. He’s railing about this, and he’s mad at people, but he’s also in denial. ‘I didn’t fall asleep.’ I mean, that’s what he’s saying now.’" It may reflect a similar disinterest Wolff picked up on during Trump's first presidency.
The Fire and Fury biographer suggested Trump would get up and leave rooms should his attention not be grabbed. Wolff explained, "Certainly, in the first White House, 90 seconds, he was bored. He was out of the room."
Trump's second presidency is showing clear signs of fatigue, and that could be because "it's not going right anymore." Wolff said, "He’s had this incredible year. Everything essentially has gone right for him."
"And I think now what we’re starting to see is, it’s not really going right anymore. It may be going kind of dramatically wrong. And I think he’s losing interest in that. He likes success. He certainly doesn’t like hard work."
A White House spokesperson has refuted claims that Trump has fallen asleep in meetings or that the president is in poor health. Karoline Leavitt said, "As the President’s physician, Dr. Sean Barbabella, has made clear time and again — and as the American people see with their own eyes every single day — President Trump remains in excellent overall health."
"President Trump’s relentless work ethic, unmatched energy, and historic accessibility stand in sharp contrast to what we saw during the past four years when the failing legacy media intentionally covered up Joe Biden’s serious mental and physical decline from the American people. Pushing these fake and desperate narratives now about President Trump is why Americans’ trust in the media just fell to a new all-time low."