By Steve Holland and Trevor Hunnicutt
WASHINGTON, Jan 29 (Reuters) - Sleeping or bored? For U.S. President Donald Trump, it's in the eye of the beholder.
Trump on Thursday said he was not asleep, just bored,
during his cabinet meeting in December, when he shut his eyes for several extended periods.
"Some people said, he closed his eyes. Look, it got pretty boring," Trump told laughing officials in the White House Cabinet Room on Thursday. "I didn't sleep. I just closed them because I wanted to get the hell outta here."
He added, "I didn't sleep, by the way. I don't sleep much."
Trump made the comments during a televised 81-minute cabinet meeting that he abbreviated from its usual format by skipping several officials and a back-and-forth with reporters on the news of the day.
At 79 and in his final term in office, Trump has been eager to dispel questions about his vitality. He has touted his cognitive fitness to reporters, ordered aides to disclose more meetings on his schedule and occasionally flirted with seeking a third term despite a constitutional limit. Advisories distributed to the press now include line items for "policy time," "Signing Time" and "Print Interview."
TRUMP'S MARATHON TELEVISION APPEARANCES
In prior administrations, cabinet meetings have been dull and largely off-camera. Under Trump, they have become a stage for the president and his team to broadcast achievements they see as under-appreciated by the press.
In one case last year, the meeting stretched more than three live-on-TV hours, apparently the longest camera appearance of the president's public life.
The Republican president has been seen regularly closing his eyes during those and other public appearances. He did not appear to nod off on Thursday.
Trump is not the first president to bat away questions about his stamina. Ronald Reagan's press secretary, Marlin Fitzwater, was asked to explain the 70-something Cold War president appearing to nod off in the 1980s.
Trump's predecessor, Joe Biden, dropped his 2024 bid for a second term after voters and other Democrats worried about the then-81-year-old's fitness for office. Trump still regularly refers to his one-time opponent as "Sleepy Joe" and has installed a plaque at the White House suggesting his predecessor ran his presidency using an automated pen. Biden has denied the accusation.
Trump was the oldest man to be inaugurated U.S. president when he took office last year.
He travels, posts on social media and interacts with the press far more regularly than Biden did. Yet questions about Trump's health have lingered, including around medical imaging tests he disclosed and bruising on his hands.
The White House says the tests were preventative and showed the president in good cardiac health. They have attributed the bruising, which is sometimes covered by makeup, to aspirin the president takes routinely as a prophylaxis against cardiovascular disease.
(Reporting by Steve Holland and Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Colleen Jenkins, Rod Nickel)
