President Donald Trump drew mockery from political opponents after cameras captured him with his eyes closed and his head angled forward during an Oval Office event Monday, shortly after he criticized former President Joe Biden as "Sleepy Joe."
The Sept. 28 appearance was intended to announce Mesabi Metallics' proposed $15 billion steel plant in eastern Iowa. Instead, footage of Trump seated behind the Resolute Desk while other officials spoke gave critics an opening to turn his longstanding insult against his predecessor back on him.
The video does not establish that Trump fell asleep or became unresponsive. It shows his eyes closed and his head lowered during portions of the presentation, including remarks by Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, but does not conclusively establish his state of consciousness.
Sleepy who? pic.twitter.com/cgWiYsAFPx — Hunter Biden (@HunterBiden) September 29, 2026
That distinction did little to slow the political reaction. Rep. Ted Lieu, a California Democrat, accused Trump of "sleeping on the job." The progressive media outlet MeidasTouch paired footage of Trump's remarks about Biden with the subsequent moment in a SpongeBob SquarePants meme format.
Writer Molly Jong-Fast directed part of her criticism at Lutnick, posting: "In trumps defense howard is very very boring". Democratic commentator Harry Sisson also shared the footage on Instagram, according to MEAWW News.
Trump, 80, later answered questions from reporters. No specific White House response to the latest footage was identified in the supplied reports, although the administration has previously disputed assertions that he was sleeping during public appearances.
Before the moment circulated online, Trump had used the steel announcement to promote his administration's economic agenda. He described the proposed facility as a "tremendous investment" and said the American steel industry was "roaring back to life," while arguing that the project would not have happened under Biden.
Mesabi Metallics, a Minnesota-based company owned by India's Essar Group, is behind the planned development. Production is expected to begin around 2030, making the announcement a commitment to a future facility rather than the opening of an operating mill.
The plant is projected to produce 7.5 million tons of steel annually at first, with capacity potentially increasing to 10 million tons when fully developed. Employment estimates call for at least 1,750 permanent positions and up to 6,000 construction jobs; those figures remain projections.
The reaction to Monday's appearance also revived discussion of Trump's sleep habits, which have been addressed publicly before. Such accounts provide background but cannot determine whether he was asleep during this particular event, and the supplied reporting contains no medical assessment linking the footage to a health condition.
At a January 2018 White House briefing, then-presidential physician Ronny Jackson estimated that Trump slept four to five hours a night. "He's just one of those people, I think, that just does not require a lot of sleep," Jackson told reporters.
