Not a new phenomenon: Staying awake in meetings has been a challenge for Donald Trump for several months.Image: www.imago-images.de
Donald Trump has often shown that he has authoritarian tendencies. It is not for nothing that critics have been protesting against him for months under the slogan “No Kings”. In a recent meeting, the US President is once again demonstrating this inclination.
March 24, 2026, 10:15 p.mMarch 24, 2026, 10:15 p.m
Darius Rimkus /
For years, Donald Trump has built a cult of personality around himself that is unprecedented in the history of American democracy. He has built up and maintained his political following like a cult, some of his fans worship him like a saint – and his colleagues are his subjects.
Sounds exaggerated? Trump’s treatment of his ministers and advisers in a current cabinet meeting speaks a different story. The US President once again showed the traits of a despot before nodding off.
Trump Cabinet: Hymns of praise for the US President
The public Cabinet meeting held in Memphis on Monday was marked by a series of eulogies for the president that were reminiscent of authoritarian regimes.
According to the US portal “Mediaite”, Stephen Miller, a long-time Trump advisor, began with an almost three-minute speech in which he praised the president for his “vision, courage and determination”. He described Trump’s policies as a “national miracle” that would be studied for generations.
As a reminder: This was a cabinet meeting that was actually supposed to be about political content. Trump seemed blown away by such praise and explained to FBI Director Kash Patel, who then took the microphone: “So Kash, let’s see if you can top that!” He added: “It’s going to be difficult, Kash.”
Patel then began, as can be seen in recordings of the meeting, his own hymn of praise for Trump’s “brilliant leadership”, with which the US President had created “the safest nation on God’s green earth”.
He added loudly Mediaite added: “Here in Memphis, Tennessee, you gave the world a show.” Thanks to Trump, “gangsters, rapists, murderers and drug dealers” have been arrested in record numbers. And at the end, Patel enthused that he was living the “wildest dream you can imagine” as an FBI director who fled a genocide in East Africa to the USA as a child – thanks to Trump.
According to “Mediaite”, the US President was satisfied with Patel after his two-minute speech: “He did really well,” he praised. The scenes were widely shared and criticized on social media. The X account “Republicans against Trump” commented: “This has serious North Korean vibes.”
Trump is nodding off again
“Wild dreams” were also a good keyword for Trump at the meeting. Because all the praise apparently couldn’t give him enough energy to follow the event with full attention.
Instead, Trump apparently nodded off again, as shown by images in which the US President leaned his head to the side and closed his eyes, motionless, for several seconds.
It’s not the first time Trump has struggled to stay awake at a public event. In the past he has been filmed with his eyes closed at cabinet meetings and press conferences.
Critics have long accused him of saying his behavior could indicate health problems. At 78 years old at the beginning of 2025, Trump was the oldest president to ever take office as US president.
Trump himself has repeatedly rejected such allegations. At another cabinet meeting at the end of January, he said: “Some people say I closed my eyes. Look, it got boring. I didn’t sleep, I just wanted to get out of here.” (fwa)