Trump campaign furiously denies former president fell asleep in court during hush money trial
Donald Trump could be excused for a sleepless night before becoming the first US president to face trial on Monday, but his campaign team vehemently denied claims he actually fell asleep in court.
New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman told CNN that Trump struggled to stay awake and eventually dozed off as jury selection got underway at his hush money trial in New York.
The claim sparked a wave of hashtags on social media and was jumped on by the Biden Harris campaign – long dogged by Trump’s ‘Sleepy Joe’ nickname for the sitting president.
But it was dismissed as ‘100 per cent fake news’ by the former president’s campaign team, who insisted he was the victim of a malicious media.
“This is 100% fake news coming from ‘journalists’ who were not even in the courtroom,” they said in a statement.
Court nap? The former president appeared red-eyed as he sat through jury selection at his quiet money trial at Manhattan Central Court in New York on Monday.
Trump with his legal team, from left to right: Todd Blanche, Emil Bove and Susan Necheles
New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman repeated the furiously disputed claim on CNN
Jury selection is expected to last the rest of the week as dozens of potential jurors are tested for potential bias against the former president, who faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to hide payments to former porn star Stormy Daniels.
More than 50 were dismissed on the first day as Trump watched from his seat at Manhattan Criminal Court.
“Trump appears to be sleeping,” Haberman tweeted from the room.
“His head keeps falling down and his mouth goes slack.”
Biden has refrained from commenting directly on his rival’s legal troubles, but the Biden-Harris HQ X account gleefully retweeted Haberman’s remarks, later adding: ‘Donald Trump falling asleep in court doesn’t speak to him as a committed, energetic candidate.’
Biden’s campaign team reportedly released a poll memo titled ‘Wake Up Donald: After Stormy Abort Ban Coverage, Trump Poll Memo Attempts to Hush Panic’.
There was even less restraint on social media, where hashtags including ‘DonSnoreleone’, ‘The Nodfather’ and Sleepy Don quickly went viral.
Journalists arrived early to seats in an overflow room to follow the proceedings
Anti-Trump protesters gathered outside the courthouse Monday morning
Trump arrives to attend the first day of his trial for allegedly covering up hush money payments related to extramarital affairs at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City
The anti-Trump Republican Lincoln Project joked that ‘#SleepyDon was up late posting rage on Truth Social’.
“He’s not changing his sleeping patterns and he can’t have 10 Diet Cokes in the courtroom,” joked comedian Dana Goldberg. ‘He’s going to fall asleep every time. single. Day.’
“To me, I mean, it’s insane,” Rachel Maddow told viewers on MSNBC.
“It’s also a reminder that as scary as it is, as scary and bleak as it is and importantly, it’s a reminder that we’re dealing with someone who is just fundamentally sober.”
But others posted footage of the many times the sitting president appears to have drifted off in public settings.
The former president appeared slightly pink in photos taken in court, but most reporters claimed Trump remained focused throughout.
“Donald Trump sat stony-faced, eyes narrowed and lips pursed as his lawyers battled with prosecutors over how many salacious (and untrue) National Enquirer headlines could be shown to jurors and whether they could hear him say “take them in their p** ***s’ or if they could only read transcripts of the famous Access Hollywood tape,’ TheWSTNews.com’s Rob Crilly reported.
‘Trump dominated the space among his legal team.
‘He leaned back in his chair or moved forward to look at a video screen, like a silverback gorilla reminding the courtroom who was boss.
‘When a decision went against him – like when referee Juan Merchan decided he wasn’t going to recuse himself – he briefly showed his frustration and gave a furious little nod.
“But at other times he did his impression of a legal scholar: brow furrowed, head bowed, as if considering the judge’s decision to admit Molineux’s evidence.”
Word of the hostile reporting appeared to get back to Trump, who reportedly “glared” at Haberman for several seconds as he left court.
The case concerns payments allegedly made to Stormy Daniels to hide an affair
“He stared at me quite specifically and walked out of the room,” she told CNN.
‘I want to be clear that I have seen many people fall asleep in courtrooms. I’ve seen jurors fall asleep. I’ve seen referees fall asleep.
‘If someone falls asleep who is a criminal defendant in a case, we will report it.
‘But he doesn’t like things like that being reported and I guess – I don’t know – that’s what it was about.’