Trump had his eyes closed while the names of the 184 victims were being read.
It was this September 11, at the Pentagon, during the ceremony marking 25 years since the attack. Alongside Melania Trump, the 80-year-old president appeared in several videos with his head falling forward and backward, amid the event’s solemn silence.
Cameras captured him from different angles, and the images quickly began circulating everywhere.
White House spokesperson Davis Ingle quickly stepped in to clarify that Trump was not asleep, but “solemnly listening” in memory of the victims. Minutes later, in his speech, Trump referred to the date as “September 11th, twenty-O-one”.
Journalist Aaron Rupar described his tone as that of someone “absolutely exhausted”. It is not the first time: last year’s memorial also left similar questions hanging in the air.
