The White House got into a public argument after a Reuters reporter shared a photo of President Donald Trump with his eyes closed during a maternal health event in the Oval Office. The official White House account, Rapid Response 47, fired back at the reporter, calling him an “absolute moron” for implying that Trump was asleep.
The incident happened on May 11, 2026, when Trump held a press conference in the Oval Office to talk about maternal health. After the event, Reuters national security correspondent Idrees Ali posted a photo of Trump sitting in the Oval Office with his eyes shut.
The caption read, “U.S. President Donald Trump attends a maternal health event in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 11, 2026.” Rapid Response 47 replied to the post, insisting that Trump was not sleeping but simply blinking. “He was blinking, you absolute moron,” the account wrote, along with a link to a tweet.
The White House’s reaction made things worse, not better
Rather than quieting things down, the White House’s response only brought more attention to the photo. Minutes later, another account managed by the White House, called Headquarters, posted a video that showed Trump with his eyes closed for a longer stretch of time. The video appeared to be from a different moment during the same event, and Trump’s head position in the video was slightly different from the one in the Reuters photo.
“That’s an awfully long blink!” Headquarters posted, poking fun at the White House’s defense. Democratic Representative Ted Lieu then joined in, sharing a video of Trump closing his eyes and writing, “Dear @RapidResponse47: That is a verrrrrrrrrryyyy long blink.”
The video showed Trump’s eyes remaining closed for 17 straight seconds. White House Communications Director Steven Cheung hit back at Lieu, calling him a “loser of the highest order” and saying he had a “debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
This is not the first time Trump has been seen with his eyes closed during an official event. In December 2025, Trump was spotted with his eyes shut during a cabinet meeting and later said he was just blinking. Similar moments were also noticed in January, February, March, and April of this year, including during an Oval Office event about bringing back the Presidential Fitness Test in public schools.
A Daily Beast analysis found that in April, Trump’s social media habits stopped him from getting a full night’s sleep on all but five nights that month. Trump is well known for his late-night posting activity, and he has previously flooded Truth Social with Iran memes hours after serious geopolitical developments were still unfolding.
He has also been known to go on late-night posting sprees, including one where he posted AI images of himself on Mount Rushmore and shared gold coin profiles and Uno wild card images, all in the same 11 PM session. CNN’s Kaitlan Collins has also previously reported that Trump gets very little sleep when traveling, often choosing to stay awake and talk to staff rather than rest.
Published: May 12, 2026 12:45 pm