The White House remains adamant that President Donald Trump is not falling asleep during important occasions. He’s just, you know, resting his eyes. Pondering. Reflecting. Blinking. Or something. Definitely not sleeping.
On Tuesday, July 28, Trump attended late Senator Lindsey Graham’s funeral. Videos circulating on social media appear to show Trump dozing off. After people started making comments about the 80-year-old president falling asleep, the White House responded in a way that is quite typical of the Trump administration: by insulting everyone who has said Trump was sleeping.
According to the White House, those who believe Trump fell asleep are actually just “depraved morons.”
Trump appears to be completely passed out asleep at Lindsey Graham's funeral pic.twitter.com/JIoVTLUDwo
— Headquarters (@HQNewsNow) July 28, 2026
In a statement shared with People, White House spokesperson Davis Ingle suggested that Trump was not sleeping in those videos and images; he was “reflecting on the loss of his dear friend Lindsey Graham, for whom he had just delivered a beautiful eulogy.”
Ingle also added, “Anyone suggesting otherwise is a depraved moron.”
People have been reacting to footage on social media.
look at the guy behind Trump (who is asleep). it smells crazy back there pic.twitter.com/zXQt3oU37D
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 28, 2026
Journalist Aaron Rupar shared a clip from the funeral on X and captioned it with, “look at the guy behind Trump (who is asleep). it smells crazy back there.” In response, someone else said, “Every major media outlet should be screaming this headline: ’80 YEAR OLD GERIATRIC PRESIDENT CAN’T STAY AWAKE!!'”
The “Republicans against Trump” account shared a longer clip originally posted by Headquarters, which was actually a montage that showed Trump seemingly falling asleep on multiple different occasions. One of those was at Graham’s funeral.
“They don’t call him Sleepy Don for nothing,” the account wrote. One critic who reacted to the clip addressed Trump directly, writing, “this idiotic sleeping situation is getting out of hand, why are you still the president when you can’t even stay awake during the day?”
Others were not making excuses for the president, per se, but they weren’t necessarily surprised. “That’s no wonder, considering he posts weird AI videos all night,” someone else commented.
At the same time, some people did actually defend Trump.
They don’t call him Sleepy Don for nothing pic.twitter.com/IbvvtFCCW0
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) July 28, 2026
Some of his supporters said Trump was simply looking down or closing his eyes momentarily. Which is similar to what Trump himself has said before. Previously, Trump tried to tell the Wall Street Journal that all those photos that show him sleeping are actually just images of him “relaxing” with his eyes closed.
“I’ll just close (my eyes),” he said. “It’s very relaxing to me.” His critics have another way of describing this phenomenon; they call it “taking a nap.”
That wasn’t the only explanation Trump offered, though. He has also tried to say that photographers are just catching him at a bad time. “Sometimes they’ll take a picture of me blinking, blinking, and they’ll catch me with the blink,” he claimed.
But, of course, there are also videos that show him with his eyes closed, just like the recent ones from Graham’s funeral. So, when people started accusing Trump of sleeping at the funeral, one commenter sarcastically said, “Oh come on now. Those are blinks! Just blinks that last a good 20 seconds to a minute.. that’s perfectly normal.”
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