A top doctor has publicly sounded the alarm on President Donald Trump’s deeply troubling habit of nodding off during official engagements. The physician warned the nation that what millions of people are now watching on camera could be a sign of something far more serious than simple tiredness. The clips are everywhere, and the concern is no longer coming just from political opponents.
Trump, who turns 80 next month, has appeared to nod off during several high-profile public events this year. The most recent and widely discussed incident happened at a Memorial Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery on Monday. The commander in chief appeared visibly drowsy while seated at a solemn event meant to honor America’s fallen soldiers and their grieving families.
Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a professor of medicine and director of the cardiac catheterization laboratory at George Washington University Hospital, stepped forward with a pointed medical assessment. Reiner previously served as cardiologist to the late former Vice President Dick Cheney, giving him significant credibility on matters of high-profile health. He did not hesitate to use the words “severe illness” when describing what he believes is happening to the president.
Reiner made his remarks ahead of Trump’s scheduled visit to Walter Reed Medical Center for a physical checkup on Tuesday. He appeared on CNN News Central and spoke with the kind of clinical directness that is difficult to dismiss. His focus was specifically on Trump’s sleeping patterns and what they may signal about the president’s overall health.
“The president has severe daytime somnolence. He falls asleep very often. He’s fallen asleep in the Oval Office on multiple occasions with people talking to him in the Cabinet room, and I was concerned yesterday that he might have fallen asleep at Arlington National Cemetery during Memorial Day observances,” Reiner said plainly.
He did not stop there. Reiner followed up with a warning about what chronic sleep dysfunction can do to an aging brain. “Chronic insomnia is a severe illness. It can result in an increase in risk of dementia, decrease in cognitive effects in older people,” the doctor cautioned on live television.
The White House did not take the diagnosis sitting down. Davis Ingle, the White House spokesman, lashed out at Reiner in a statement given to The Daily Beast, calling him a “hack doctor.” “If it quacks like a duck, it may actually just be a Democrat hack doctor,” Ingle said, brushing aside the doctor’s concerns entirely.
Ingle went even further, painting Trump as a model of presidential fitness. “President Trump is the sharpest, most accessible, and energetic president in American history and any so-called medical professionals engaging in armchair diagnosis or false speculation for political purposes are clearly breaking the Hippocratic Oath they’ve sworn to,” he added. The strong pushback did little to slow the spread of the clips already circulating online.
The video record, however, is harder to argue away. There are multiple documented instances of Trump appearing to fall asleep in public, captured here, here, here, here, and here. He has even admitted it himself in his own words, making the White House’s denials even harder to sustain.
One of the clearest examples came last November during a press conference focused on drug prices. California Governor Gavin Newsom shared a post on X featuring an image of the president slumped in his chair with his eyes firmly closed. “DOZY DON IS BACK!” Newsom declared loudly, and the post spread across every major social media platform within hours.
Another notable moment came on May 12, when Trump was hosting a maternal health event at the White House. Surrounded by Cabinet members, the president appeared to nod off right behind his desk in full view of cameras. The footage made its way online fast, and the reaction was swift and widespread.
The White House’s official rapid response X account wrote in response to a Reuters photograph showing the president with his eyes shut: “He was blinking, you absolute moron.” The aggressive reply only poured more gasoline on an already burning story and kept the clip in circulation even longer.
The sleeping incidents are only one part of a much bigger and more worrying picture. Concerns about Trump’s slurring words in speeches have also been building steadily, with multiple clips showing the president stumbling through sentences and losing his train of thought mid-address. Together, the two patterns have fueled a loud and growing national debate about the president’s cognitive health.
Last month, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker told Politico plainly that he believes the president “has dementia.” Many medical experts have echoed that view, pointing out that Trump appears to be showing early signs of the same disease that affected his late father. The political and medical worlds are now increasingly asking the same uncomfortable questions.
Democratic Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin moved from words to action last month. He sent a formal letter to White House physician Sean Barbabella, a Navy captain, demanding a full and comprehensive cognitive evaluation of the president. Raskin also insisted that the results of that evaluation be made available to the American public without delay.
“Experts have repeatedly warned that the President has been exhibiting signs consistent with dementia and cognitive decline,” Raskin wrote in his letter. “And, in recent days, the country has watched President Trump’s public statements and outbursts turn increasingly incoherent, volatile, profane, deranged, and threatening.” The congressman’s words landed hard and drew immediate national headlines.
Raskin, the senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, made clear the concern stretches beyond party lines. “His apparently deteriorating condition has caused tremendous alarm across the nation about the President’s cognitive function and continuing mental fitness for the office of President, and prompted concerns about the President’s wellbeing,” he wrote. It was a direct and formal challenge that the White House has yet to meaningfully answer.
The bitter irony of the moment is impossible to miss. Trump built a significant part of his political brand by mocking Joe Biden with the nickname “Sleepy Joe,” using drowsiness as a weapon to question Biden’s fitness for office. Now, with cameras rolling and doctors speaking out, that same label is being aimed squarely back at him.
Trump reportedly sleeps very little at night, which medical experts say can directly cause severe daytime drowsiness and cognitive problems over time. He has been filmed with his eyes closed during diplomatic meetings, church services, solemn memorial ceremonies, and important policy briefings. Each new clip that surfaces adds more weight to what Dr. Reiner and a growing number of medical professionals are now saying out loud and on the record.
With the Walter Reed visit now complete and no detailed public health report released, the unanswered questions are only getting louder. Americans who have watched these videos are starting to ask exactly what many doctors are already declaring: that something may be genuinely and seriously wrong with the president of the United States.
