Donald Trump appeared tired at times during a White House roundtable of conservative influencers griping about the anti-fascist movement called antifa.
The president, who has accused antifa of “carrying out a campaign of violence” directed at Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, held the Wednesday afternoon event as his administration reportedly deliberates over invoking the Insurrection Act to have troops support ICE operations in large, blue-state cities like Chicago and Portland. Trump has already ordered the deployment of the Illinois National Guard over the objections of Gov. JB Pritzker, who has sued in response.
Another Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, jumped on the 79-year-old president’s appearance Wednesday.
DOZY DON IS BACK! TOO MUCH “TYLENOL??” https://t.co/IzSSeEqRIt
— Governor Newsom Press Office (@GovPressOffice) October 8, 2025
“Dozy Don is back!” Newsom’s office wrote on X in all-caps, in a continuation of his imitation of Trump’s style. “Too much ‘Tylenol??’”
Newsom also weighed in on his personal account. “Honestly thought this was a still image when I first started watching,” he wrote.
Honestly thought this was a still image when I first started watching https://t.co/FBJZLpfDuC
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) October 8, 2025
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung told the Daily Beast in response: “President Trump just secured the biggest peace deal while Gavin Newsom is beclowning himself. He’ll never be President.”
Anti-ICE protests have taken place in Chicago, Portland, and other major cities. Whether anyone in them is part of antifa is unclear. But Trump said Wednesday that the group still poses a “terror threat,” in line with his executive order last month labeling it a domestic terrorist organization.
“It should be clear to all Americans that we have a very serious left-wing terror threat in our country—radicals associated with the domestic terror group antifa that you’ve heard a lot about lately, and I’ve heard a lot about them for 10 years,” Trump said.
Trump was joined by several top administration officials, including Attorney General Pam Bondi, Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and FBI Director Kash Patel. They heard from the likes of Nick Sortor, Andy Ngo, Jack Posobiec and Brandi Kruse. One of the instances when Trump appeared sleepy was during Ngo’s remarks.
The president has odd sleep habits, multiple people inside the administration have revealed.
Vice President JD Vance told Fox News last month that Trump “doesn’t have an off switch” and doesn’t seem to get much shut-eye.
“Sometimes the president will call you at 12:30 or 2:00 in the morning, and then he’ll call you at 6:00 in the morning about a totally different topic,” Vance said. “It’s like, ‘Mr. President, did you go to sleep last night?’”
Bondi said a week later on Katie Miller’s podcast: “None of us can keep up with him, we always joke…I don’t know how he does it. I mean, none of us know when he sleeps. He’s working all the time and it’s just constant for him.”
CNN anchor Kaitlin Collins also said Monday that an aide told her that being with Trump on Air Force One trips abroad isn’t enviable because he doesn’t sleep much.
“He doesn’t sleep on these trips,” Collins told podcaster Jason Tartick. “And like, you’re going to Asia or something, and that’s kind of the only time you’re going to sleep, before you go on this trip, but Trump is just always up and talking, and he’ll like, have them go and wake staff up if they’re asleep because he wants to talk to them.”
According to the National Institute on Aging, people Trump’s age need at least seven hours of sleep.
The post Trump, 79, Struggles to Stay Awake During His Own Roundtable appeared first on The Daily Beast.
