Trump
Liam O'Dell
21h
Related video: Trump says opposition leader Maria Corina Machado unfit to run Venezuela
Aljazeera / VideoElephant
We’ve lost count of how many times this has happened at this point, but US president Donald Trump has again been accused of struggling to keep his eyes open in public again – and on this occasion, it happened during an event as significant as a press conference on his administration’s strikes on Venezuela and the ‘capturing’ of the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro.
Taking to the lectern in Mar-a-Lago on Saturday, Trump said the US would run the South American country “until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition”.
But when it was the turn of top military official Dan “Raizin” Caine to speak, the 79-year-old Republican was seen in the background appearing to be struggling to stay awake, closing his eyes on several occasions.
And X/Twitter users certainly noticed:
Jo Carducci, better known online as JoJoFromJerz, asked “what the f*** is going on with Donald Trump’s health?”:
Joe Gallina, of Call to Activism, described the scenes as “unbelievable” and branded the US government a “clown show”:
And California representative Jack Kimble tweeted sarcastically that “people need to quit spreading the lie” that Trump is falling asleep as he is “just a really slow blinker”:
Kimble’s comments reference Trump’s pushback at claims he falls asleep in meetings, which saw him claim that photographers will sometimes “take a picture of me blinking … and they’ll catch me with the blink”.
Just last month, he was seen with his eyes closed as secretary of state Marco Rubio addressed him directly during a cabinet meeting, and while he was meeting leaders from Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
It’s even become a meme, with someone using the viral ‘Turn the Lights Off’ trend to poke fun at Trump’s tendency to rest his eyes for unusually long periods.
The White House has been approached by indy100 for comment.
Why not read…?
- Trump ridiculed over tiny detail in Venezuela ‘situation room’
- Trump brags about ‘acing’ third cognitive test - but there's a problem
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