Even a steady stream of compliments seemed unable to keep President Donald Trump engaged.
The 79-year-old president was in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, on Friday for a roundtable focused on the impact of rising fertilizer and energy costs on farmers from the U.S. war with Iran.
Trump was joined by Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, Wisconsin Republican lawmakers, and local agricultural leaders, who gathered around a conference table to discuss the challenges facing the industry.
But as several attendees took turns praising the president and thanking him for his leadership, Trump appeared to close his eyes and tilt his head downward.
The footage quickly spread online, reviving a debate the White House has spent much of the week trying to shut down.
The Daily Beast reached out to the White House for comment.
Just one day earlier, the administration’s Rapid Response account lashed out after another viral clip appeared to show the president with his eyes closed during an Oval Office event promoting what he called “Beautiful, Clean Coal.”
One post on X that racked up millions of views claimed Trump was “completely passed out asleep” and sarcastically predicted the White House would insist he had merely been blinking.
The White House responded with unusual fury.
“His eyes are literally open in the clip you posted, you dumba-- mouth-breathers,” the Rapid Response account fired back.
The Wisconsin footage is the latest entry in a growing catalog of alleged public naps by the president.
Critics first accused Trump of dozing off at the funeral of Pope Francis in April 2025. Weeks later, during a Middle East trip, cameras appeared to catch him drifting off while touting a major agreement with Saudi Arabia.
In July, viewers claimed Trump nodded off during the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit, an irony that did not go unnoticed online.
October brought another viral clip, this time from an anti-Antifa roundtable where the president appeared to struggle to stay awake, while November saw Trump accused of nodding off during a White House event focused on cutting prices for weight-loss drugs.
A trio of alleged naps followed in December.
The first came as Marco Rubio praised Trump’s leadership on Ukraine. The second arrived two days later during a press conference celebrating a peace agreement between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The third came later that month, when footage appeared to show the president drifting off during an Oval Office event marking a major shift in federal marijuana policy.
The controversy refused to go to bed in 2026.
In January, video appeared to show Trump struggling to stay awake during a briefing on the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and again during a White House event on the return of whole milk to school lunches alongside Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
February proved equally challenging as the president appeared to close his eyes during a press conference on rolling back climate regulations and later during the inaugural meeting of his newly created Board of Peace.
In March, Trump was accused of nodding off during a roundtable on crime and public safety in Tennessee, and April brought another viral clip from a White House event focused on healthcare affordability.
May brought two more alleged naps, one during a Presidential Fitness Test event and another during a maternal health announcement.
Then came this week’s Oval Office coal event, and now at a Wisconsin roundtable.
On Wednesday, Marco Rubio was humiliated when asked about the president’s tendency to nod off while testifying on Capitol Hill. “That’s false,” the secretary of state shot back, noting: “On the contrary, the guy doesn’t sleep, which is a big problem, because he calls me at 2 in the morning, he calls me at 5 in the morning, and you know, I like to sleep a little bit.”
The reality of the situation was made clear, however, when Rubio was shown footage of the dozy president
Despite the White House’s increasingly aggressive denials, accusations that Trump is dozing off during public events have become a recurring headache for the administration.
