President Donald Trump looked particularly exhausted during a roundtable meeting at the White House on Wednesday.
Several times throughout the 56-minute meeting, centered on customer energy prices, Trump, 79, was seen with his face drooping and his eyes closed, primed and ready for an afternoon nap.
At one point, the president jolted up after his Science Advisor, Michael Kratsios, finished speaking at the discussion beside him.
The president’s Wednesday meeting welcomed executive leaders from big tech companies, including Amazon, OpenAI, and Google, and asked them to sign his “Ratepayer Protection Pledge.”
The agreement requires major tech companies to build their own power plants to support the data centers used to develop and utilize artificial intelligence, as concerns over the facilities’ impact on consumer electricity rates have intensified.
The president said during his speech that data centers “need some PR help, because people think that if a data center goes in, their electricity prices are going to go up.”
The president closed the meeting by signing the proclamation and didn’t take questions from reporters.
When reached for comment over his apparent fatigue, White House spokesman Davis Ingle told the Daily Beast: “President Trump is the sharpest, most accessible, and energetic president in American history. While the deranged and failing Daily Beast has their lightweight, glue-sniffing so-called ‘reporters’ push baseless conspiracy theories — President Trump spent the day focused on lowering costs and putting the American people first.”
Ingle, 31, is a communications graduate of Florida’s Southeastern University, where his father, Kent Ingle, is president. SEU boasts that more than two-thirds of its students attend online or through extension courses at 200 “partner sites,” which do not have to be accredited.
The president’s health and mental acuity have come into question throughout his second term in office, which the Daily Beast has covered extensively.
Earlier this week, a brand-new red rash appeared behind and below Trump’s right ear, prompting concern about its cause. The scabbed redness was visible during the president’s Medal of Honor ceremony at the White House on Monday.
The White House did not detail the source of the rash, but said in a statement shared with the Daily Beast that the president was using a “common cream” on his neck as part of a “preventative skin treatment.”
“The President is using this treatment for one week, and the redness is expected to last for a few weeks,” Trump’s physician, Sean Barbabella, said in the statement.
Trump’s left hand—his “good” hand—was also notably bruised during Monday’s ceremony. The White House often attributes bruising on his right hand to “frequent handshaking,” but did not explain why his left hand was bruised when asked by the Daily Beast.
The president’s neck rash was covered in foundation on Tuesday—a common Trump move—but his swollen ankles, a common symptom of chronic venous insufficiency, were on display instead. Trump was diagnosed with the long-term condition last July.
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