Unlike Washington state Republicans, more than a few people who love democracy, hope Trump never wakes up from one of his courtroom naps. What’s with him; is it sleep apnea, narcolepsy, insomnia, hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism, chronic fatigue syndrome, depression, anxiety, stress, his poor sleep habits? Or is it the antidepressants, opioids, benzodiazepines? All of the above?
Trump is embarrassed he can’t stay awake so he keeps denying he’s been sleeping through the trial, insisting he’s just concentrating, which neither explains the slack jaw, the head drooping onto his chest, nor the drool on his chin. No one has reported his been snoring yet. He reacted especially badly yesterday after David Graham’s column in The Atlantic, Trump’s Naps Are Actually Worrying. All the reporters present agree that despite his denials, he’s been sleeping daily. Susanne Craig: “Trump is struggling to stay awake. His eyes were closed for a short period. He was jolted awake when Todd Blanche, his lawyer, nudged him while sliding a note in front of him.”
Graham noted that “Trump’s bouts of drowsiness occupy a strange place in the political news. They began as an object of amusement, good fodder for comedians of the late-night, social-media, and podcast varieties. (‘Don Snoreleone’ was one memorable coinage; others fittingly compared him to Rip Van Winkle, a lethargic New Yorker who’s stuck in the past and waking up to an unpleasant new reality.) Now, like many of Trump’s strangest behaviors, his impromptu naps threaten to become normal, as though catnapping through a lurid trial is typical. But they shouldn’t be mere comic fodder, nor accepted as normal: They are a worrisome sign about a leading presidential candidate. If Trump can’t manage to stay awake during a trial when his very freedom is on the line, what are the chances that he will be able to focus on the intricacies of a spiraling regional war, a trade policy, or any new crisis that might face him if he returns to the White House? Trump seems to get that, and appears to be actually a bit embarrassed— unusual for a man who, when caught in what might otherwise be a shameful situation, more commonly acts proud. In this case, though, Trump isn’t insisting that he’s been taking ‘perfect’ naps. Instead, he’s posting about President Joe Biden being the sleepy one. His aides have mostly tried to avoid the topic. Alina Habba, one of Trump’s many lawyers, insisted that he wasn’t sleeping, but added, ‘He’s probably brutally bored.’ This excuse might have been more persuasive if it was just the first day— Mondays are hard on everyone, especially guys with orange hair, and jury selection can be mind-numbing. It’s harder to accept as the sleeping persists while the trial gets into juicy details. But, luckily for Trump, because the trial is not televised, there’s no video. That means Trump avoids clips of him snoozing spreading around, and the reports that do exist come from mainstream journalists whom Trump’s fans aren’t reading and wouldn’t trust anyway.”
Presumably, if Trump could stop dozing off, he would do so. Can he really not control his urge to sleep? That would be especially notable given that Trump has in the past boasted about not needing much rest, as the journalist Scott Nover points out in Slate. “I’m not a big sleeper, I like three hours, four hours, I toss, I turn, I beep-de-beep, I want to find out what’s going on,” Trump said in 2015. During his term in the White House, he would often tweet at all hours of the night, though the content of those messages frequently suggested that he might have been better off if he’d logged off and dropped off. The Wall Street Journal suggests that without access to Diet Coke— drinks are banned in the courtroom— he is caffeine-deprived, and that guzzling a couple of cans during breaks runs another risk, because bathroom breaks are controlled by the judge.
Trump’s pattern of projection is by now well understood. Throughout this campaign, he and his allies have attacked Joe Biden as a doddering old man who no longer has the energy for the office. Biden doesn’t show the signs of mental decline that Trump suggests, but he is demonstrably more elderly than he was in 2020. Each time Trump falls asleep in court, however, it makes his criticism of Biden’s age seem like another case of projection. Trump’s performance as president during his first term showed that he was not up to the job. His snoozing in court raises the question of whether he can stay up for it, either.
Did anyone ever imagine Trump’s lawyer would let him get on the stand and be sworn in, just to perjure himself? That was never going to happen, no matter how many times Señor T told his cult that he would testify on his own behalf. He always says he will and then never does. This excuse this time is more absurd than his usual claptrap and not something with anyone with a 3-digit IQ would spend more than 2 seconds considering. He said he can’t testify because he’s under a gag order. That may not even go over in the Dakotas and Wyoming!