Trump appears to doze off during Cabinet meeting amid growing concerns over his health
WASHINGTON, DC: During the announcement of a $12 billion aid package for US farmers at a White House roundtable on December 8, President Donald J Trump appeared to be inattentive and maybe even fell asleep while Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins was telling the details of the plan.
The incident quickly became the focus of people's eyes, and their questions about the president's fitness, both physical and mental, have gained grounds.
Trump’s visible struggle to stay awake
A video from the Cabinet Room shows Rollins going through the details of the relief package, a major part of the plan being $11 billion in direct payments to row-crop farmers and $1 billion for specialty crops.
While Rollins was talking, Trump kept nodding off; he closed his eyes, looked like he was going to sleep, but then suddenly woke up with a start and interrupted to correct the amount, saying ‘it's $12 billion.’ After that, Rollins explained the money more clearly.
Rollins made it clear to the president that $11 billion was going to be utilized for one-time payments to crop farmers that would be made by February of next year, and there would be an additional $1 billion that would be reserved for the crop sources that would not be undwr the Farmer Bridge Assistance program.
After jolting awake, Trump quipped, “Ahh, very tricky,” drawing a grimace from some participants.
Drowsy moments have followed Trump in his 2nd term
The president’s brief sleeping episodes in public, among them a nap during an Oval Office event recently, have led to an increased examination of his mental and physical condition.
Cameras showed multiple times that Trump was leaning back in his chair and closing his eyes right after he had said that he felt ‘sharper’ than he had in decades.
After the reports about his health, which seem to be getting worse, Trump, as the oldest person ever to be inaugurated as president, was said to be very angry.
Concerns over Trump's health and age
At his last Cabinet meeting of the year, Trump made it a point to single out a New York Times article.
The piece alleged that the president was aging and that he had drastically cut down his work hours in his second term, which Trump has denied vehemently.
Throughout the meeting, the president kept bringing up the piece to support his point of view.
The day after the article was published, Trump responded on Truth Social in a very angry manner, calling the article a 'hit piece' and saying that he was not losing his energy.
Referencing the Times article, he slipped into the third person to state, “Trump is sharp, but they’re not sharp.”
