Trump 'Asleep Again' as 'Head Drops' With 'Eyes Closed' on Day 2 of Hush Money Trial
The X exchange was sparked by Donald Trump's presidential immunity case.
Donald Trump seemed to fall asleep in court for the second day in a row during his trial over his alleged hush money payments, RadarOnline.com has learned.
Trump arrived at the Manhattan courthouse Tuesday morning for day two of the historic trial, with the public relying on updates from reporters because cameras are not allowed to record the hearings.
Reporter Frank G. Runyeon posted to X around 10:30 AM that "Trump's head slowly dropped, his eyes closed. It jerked back upward. He adjusts himself. Then, his head droops again. He straightens up, leaning back."
Runyeon continued with his play-by-play of Trump: "His head droops for a third time, he shakes his shoulders. Eyes closed still. His head drops. Finally, he pops his eyes open."
Soon after, CNN contributor Norm Elsen echoed these observations in his own X post that read: "Trump is asleep again."
MSNBC’s Yasmin Vossoughian went on the air and relayed comments made by legal correspondent Lisa Rubin, who said the former president had his eyes closed and was “leaning to the left."
The trial began on Monday, and news quickly spread that it appeared the former president was nodding off.
The reports came amid reaction to Monday's news that Trump had dozed off hours into the first day of the trial.
New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman wrote in an update shortly after noon Eastern Time that "Trump appears to be sleeping."
"His head keeps dropping down and his mouth goes slack," Haberman said.
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Minutes later, she wrote in another newsflash that the former president had "apparently jolted back awake, noticing the notes his lawyer passed him several minutes ago."
Anchors at CNN wasted no time taking a few jabs at the former president, who has mockingly referred to current President Joe Biden as "Sleepy Joe," as they mused about how the news would play out nationally.
On Tuesday's episode of CNN This Morning, anchor Jim Acosta asked his panel of pundits about their thoughts on Haberman's reporting.
Journalist Lulu Garcia-Navarro, one of Acosta's guests, pointed out that Trump's team denied the claims that he struggled to stay awake.
"They said it did not happen and that it was lies. And so at this point, it’s—"
"Fake snooze?" Acosta quipped.
Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to pay alleged hush money to Stormy Daniels.
Garcia-Navarro then said that she thought "there will be a segment of the population who simply do not believe that he nodded off."
"If this had happened on television and you we were all playing that tape, it might have had an impact to the way that people perceive this trial. But instead it is going to again be filtered through the partisan lens," she said.
CNN legal analyst Elliot Williams chimed in with his own play on words: "Enemy of the sleeple."
The presumed 2024 Republican presidential nominee is steeped in legal drama, but the hush money trial is the first of his criminal cases to begin, and no other U.S. president has ever faced criminal prosecution before.
Among the allegations is that Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, paid Stormy Daniels $130,000 in October 2016 in exchange for her silence about an alleged sexual encounter in 2006. At the time of the alleged affair, Trump was married to Melania.
When he arrived at the courthouse on Monday, Trump greeted reporters with the message: "This is political persecution, this is a persecution like never before, nobody has ever seen anything like it… It’s an assault on America."
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