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Dozy Trump, 80, Slumps Over as He Struggles to Stay Awake

The president could barely keep his eyes open during his one public appearance on Monday.

President Donald Trump slumped over in his chair and struggled to keep his eyes open in the Oval Office on Monday.

Trump, 80, held an afternoon event to sign an executive order on childhood vaccines, where he was joined by top administration officials.

But after the president called on others to speak, his eyes repeatedly fluttered shut as he sat behind his desk, and at one point, he even slumped over in his chair as others spoke.

It was the president’s only public event on Monday, but it was just the latest in a series of events in recent months while on camera, where he appeared to be struggling to keep his eyes open.

Trump looked to be fighting to stay awake almost immediately after he called on Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. to speak following his own brief remarks.

The president looked around the room for a moment and down at his desk before his eyes kept briefly shut for several seconds at a time as Kennedy spoke about childhood vaccines.

After he shifted in his chair several times, he even slumped forward slightly. At another point, he was hunched over to his right side with his eyes still closed.

The president quickly came to between speakers as he continued to call on attendees to give remarks, but his battle to ward off sleep appeared to grow as the event went on.

After he called on the second speaker Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to comment, Trump put his hands on his desk in front of him and could be seen leaning forward with his eyes closed as the doctor spoke.

He then shifted to leaning to the side in his chair with his eyes closed completely for several long beats, where his eyes only opened briefly, as Bhattacharya kept speaking.

At one point, as his deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller was speaking, Trump even had his head resting completely against the back of his chair with his eyes still closed as Miller ranted about what he called the pressure for parents to vaccinate their young children.

He went back to the dozing position with his eyes still closed several times after shifting to sit up on several occasions.

The full appearance lasted just over forty minutes, and the president took multiple questions at the end of it after signing the executive order, but throughout most of the part where others were speaking, Trump had his eyes closed and at times even jolted as if he were waking up.

It is not the first time the president has appeared to doze off in the Oval Office as others spoke. He has also been seen on numerous occasions with his eyes closed during roundtables and Cabinet meetings.

The president has claimed in the past that he was simply caught blinking despite the full appearances being captured on camera. He has also suggested that he was closing his eyes in Cabinet meetings because they were boring.

DREAM ON

Sleepy Trump, 80, Struggles to Keep Eyes Open at WHCA Dinner

Farrah Tomazin

More recently, Trump appeared to be struggling to stay awake at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner last month in front of a room full of journalists.

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