President Donald Trump appeared to be having difficulty staying awake as members of his Cabinet took turns singing his praises on Tuesday.
Trump frequently leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes as his secretaries told him how well he was doing.
At one point, while NFL star-turned-Housing Secretary Scott Turner was talking, the president appeared to take a brief nap, opening his eyes just in time to thank Turner for doing a “great job.”
Despite instructing his team gathered around the Cabinet table to keep their speeches brief, they seized the opportunity to boast about their work and tell the president how much they owed him.
Earlier, during a rambling 30-minute tirade in which the president bragged about his accomplishments and grumbled about the lack of appreciation he received, Trump insisted he felt “sharper” than he had in decades.
“I’ll tell you when there’s something wrong. There will be someday,” he said. ”That’s going to happen to all of us. But right now, I think I am sharper than I was 25 years ago, but who the hell knows? I took my physical. I got all As, everything.”
He told his Cabinet: “We’re saving our country. I don’t want to be braggadocious, but we’re saving our country. All of us.”
But as his team droned on, Trump had trouble focusing, even when he was getting the adoration he craves from his appointees.
“You made it through hurricane season without any hurricanes,” said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. “You even kept the hurricanes away.”
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins called the Cabinet “my family.”
Sitting to Trump’s left, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declared the U.S. military strikes against alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean a great success, saying: “We’ve had a bit of a pause because we’re having trouble finding boats to strike right now.”
The Pentagon chief ignored allegations that he demanded that no one should be left alive in the boat attacks. But he didn’t forget to say how wonderful he thought his boss was.
Trump perked up when Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard wished him a Merry Christmas. “Merry Christmas. We say it loud and clear,” he replied.
But by the time they were three-quarters of the way around the table, Trump was almost unconscious as Education Secretary Linda McMahon wound up her comments.
Health and Human Services Secretary RFK Jr. tried to turn to face the president and gesticulate at him to keep his attention.
But if Trump was following his health secretary’s long-winded report, his glazed eyes suggested differently. At least they were open.
By the time it got around to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, sitting to his right and the last one to speak, the president looked exhausted.
Perhaps it offered him an insight into what it is like to sit through one of his own speeches.
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