California Gov. Gavin Newsom ribbed Donald Trump for appearing sleepy during an Oval Office event Thursday.
Trump, 79, was seen with his eyes shut at several points during his administration’s announcement about lowered prices for certain weight loss drugs for Medicare and Medicaid recipients. It was at that event when, after one man fainted, Trump didn’t appear at all hurried to react.
“Dozy Don is back!” the 58-year-old Democrat’s press team wrote on X, along with a photograph and a video of Trump with his eyes closed while Mehmet Oz, his administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, talked about obesity’s harmful effects on sleep.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast about Newsom’s post.
Newsom, fresh off the success of a ballot measure to increase Democratic congressional seats in his home state in response to GOP legislators’ efforts to do the same in Texas, has criticized many things about the president in recent months, including his “dozy” appearance.
In September, when Trump was in the U.K. gloating over late-night host Jimmy Kimmel’s temporary suspension from ABC, the governor’s office wrote in all-caps: “Dozy Don who looks awful recently (”the hands") is lying on live television!"
Trump has frequently been photographed with bruising on the top of his right hand, which the White House has attributed to frequent hand-shaking and the use of aspirin. Trump, who was diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency in July, has also been seen with swollen lower legs.
In October, the president had an MRI, but the White House has refused to reveal the reason.
Trump also doesn’t sleep much, multiple people inside the administration have said.
“None of us can keep up with him, we always joke… I don’t know how he does it,” Attorney General Pam Bondi told Katie Miller, Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller’s wife, during a September appearance on her podcast. “I mean, none of us know when he sleeps. He’s working all the time and it’s just constant for him.”
Vice President JD Vance revealed to Fox News had sometimes Trump will call him at 2 a.m. and once more at 6 a.m.
The recommended minimum amount of sleep, according to the National Institute on Aging, is seven hours.
