U.S. President Donald Trump appeared to briefly nod off during a White House roundtable on Friday titled “Saving College Sports” in Washington, D.C, focused on NCAA athletics reforms.
At the conference with former Alabama football coach Nick Saban, NCAA president Charlie Baker, and NBA commissioner Adam Silver, Trump seemed to close his eyes for a long time while House Speaker Mike Johnson stated that “We want to accomplish the necessary ends and we think we’re very close,” and how “everybody here wants to see this American institution succeed,” per the Irish Star.
This isn’t the first time the President’s health has been questioned or that he’s seemed to fall asleep in public. According to Indy100, President Trump has reportedly fallen asleep in public on numerous occasions, including last April at Pope Francis’s funeral, on February 19, 2026.
He also seemingly dozed off during The Board of Peace meeting, and earlier that month while signing the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, among other events.
🔴LIVE: TRUMP SPEAKS ON SAVING COLLEGE SPORTS https://t.co/xseK2b8jRB
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) March 6, 2026
Addressing a January 2026 cabinet meeting where he was spotted closing his eyes, Trump said the session “got pretty boring,” per the outlet.
”It was a little bit at the boring side, but I didn’t sleep, I just closed them because I wanted to get the hell out of there. Some of them got me in a blink … They took me at the close segment of my cycle,” the President said.
The 79-year-old previously responded to public speculation about dozing off during public events in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, published on January 1, 2026.
During the interview, he told the outlet that the media sometimes captures “picture of me blinking, blinking, and they’ll catch me with the blink,” adding that such shots can give the false impression that he’s sleeping.
“I’ve never been a big sleeper,” the president said. Beyond instances of dozing off, the president has also been seen publicly with slurred speech, swelling in his ankles, bruised hands, and rashes, multiple outlets report.
Trump was also recently spotted with a neck rash during a Medal of Honour at the White House on Monday, March 2.
Addressing the rash, White House physician Dr. Sean Barbabella, in a statement, said, “President Trump is using a very common cream on the right side of his neck, which is a preventative skin treatment, prescribed by the White House Doctor.”
Barbabella continued, “The president is using this treatment for one week, and the redness is expected to last for a few weeks.”
However, the following day, March 3, during a meeting in the Oval Office with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Trump’s rash was no longer visible, which, according to People Magazine, appeared to be covered with makeup.
Donald Trump was spotted with visible scabs and what appeared to be a rash on his neck, raising eyebrows. 😱
📷: Getty
Read more: https://t.co/W9sIXSDdVT pic.twitter.com/soXh5xHxDt
— TMZ (@TMZ) March 3, 2026
According to the outlet, Trump has used makeup on multiple occasions to cover bruises on his hands, as he also addressed in the aforementioned interview with The Wall Street Journal.
”I have makeup that’s, you know, easy to put on, takes about 10 seconds,” the president told the newspaper. Additionally, he attributed his daily aspirin intake to the bruising on his hands.
”They say aspirin is good for thinning out the blood, and I don’t want thick blood pouring through my heart. I want nice, thin blood pouring through my heart. Does that make sense? They’d rather have me take the smaller one. I take the larger one, but I’ve done it for years, and what it does do is it causes bruising,” he said.
In July 2025, the President was diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency, the reason for his swollen ankles, stated The White House at the time.
