The mainstream media has been working overtime this week, peddling a thoroughly bogus claim that President Trump was dozing off during a Cabinet Room roundtable on Monday. At least two such stories popped up on my phone just yesterday, a clear sign the media is trying hard to make this narrative stick. But the whole thing is textbook fake news.
The first time I saw this rumor was on The Daily Beast earlier this week, when they claimed that Trump “appeared to doze off” during the White House event where he announced a $12 billion aid package for American farmers.
Here’s how the Beast described the situation:
Trump announced a multibillion-dollar aid package for U.S. farmers, who have been hurt by his global trade wars, at Monday’s roundtable.
But as Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins began explaining the package, the elderly president slipped into a heavy-eyed daze.
At one point, he tilted his head toward Rollins, 53, only for his eyes to shut and his head to fall forward slightly before he jolted himself back awake.
His struggle to stay awake carried on, his eyelids drooping and fluttering open again as Rollins detailed how $11 billion would be directed to her department’s new assistance program for farmers.
There’s just one problem with this narrative. The footage from the event tells a different story. When I first heard the report, I was skeptical, so rather than taking their word for it, I watched the embedded video of the incident.
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The video shows Trump actively engaged throughout Rollins’s remarks, reacting to what she said, turning his head as if to ensure he’s hearing everything, and he’s even seen nodding in agreement. He even interjected to correct her when she mentioned the $11 billion figure. “It’s $12 billion,” Trump said, demonstrating he was following along closely.
The media claims Trump is “nodding off” in this clip. I’ve watched it multiple times, that’s clearly not what’s happening. pic.twitter.com/xNPnGlcPXJ
— Matt Margolis (@mattmargolis) December 12, 2025
Curiously, The Daily Beast’s own article accidentally debunked the central claim.
That’s when Trump suddenly snapped alive and interrupted Rollins, saying, “It’s $12 billion.”
Rollins explained to the president that $11 billion would be used to provide one-time payments to crop farmers by February of next year, with another $1 billion to be held back for crops not covered by the Farmer Bridge Assistance program.
“Ahh, very tricky,” a grinning Trump quipped in response.
If Trump was nodding off, how can you also claim he was paying attention? I’m gonna be honest here: I’ve nodded off in my fair share of office meetings when I was still an architect. In none of those cases would I have been able to tell you what was being discussed. Trump demonstrated he understood exactly what was being discussed. He followed along and reacted in real time. That only happens when someone is alert and listening, not fading out.
As you could have guessed, The Daily Beast wasn’t alone in pushing this narrative. Countless other outlets have been desperately trying to sell the same story.
This marks part of a broader pattern where mainstream media organizations seem increasingly desperate to paint Trump as too old, tired, and unfit for office. The whole thing reeks of payback for conservative media’s legitimate coverage of Joe Biden’s cognitive decline and advanced age, which raised serious questions about his fitness to serve as president. In addition to other incidents, he was caught nodding off or appearing to doze off at multiple events.
There are two differences, though. The first is that Biden’s issues were real and well-documented, while this latest Trump story is manufactured nonsense, contradicted by the actual video evidence. The second is that the mainstream media typically rushed to Biden’s defense, claiming that footage of him with his eyes closed for extended periods was not proof that he was sleeping or dozing off.
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