President Donald Trump plans to accept jet from Qatar
President Donald Trump plans to accept 747-8 jumbo jet from Qatar’s royal family to replace Air Force One.
- A video clip circulating online appears to show Trump sleeping during a meeting, but the White House says he was ‘wide awake.’
- Trump is touting a $600 billion investment commitment in US from Saudi Arabia.
- This trip also includes visits to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
President Donald Trump is on his first major foreign trip of his second presidency in the Middle East this week.
His first stop was Saudi Arabia, where he announced on May 13 a $600 billion commitment from the country to invest in the U.S. He is also scheduled to go to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates on this trip.
But one moment from his visit to the Saudi Arabian Royal Court, highlighted by a Democratic account on X, grabbed the internet’s attention when it accused the Republican president of sleeping.
In the clip, the president closed his eyes for long enough to count to “four Mississippi,” but the White House says he was not asleep. Here is what we know:
White House says Trump did not fall asleep at meeting in Saudi Arabia
The White House denied that Trump was asleep in the video clip shared online.
“President Trump was wide awake after securing a $600 billion investment,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said in a written statement. Kelly also suggested the video is “nonsense that anyone with eyes can see is fake news,” and she criticized USA TODAY’s coverage of Trump’s trip to the Middle East.
(The Palm Beach Post is part of the USA TODAY Network.)
This is not the first time reports about Trump falling asleep have surfaced. While on a criminal trial in Manhattan in 2024, Trump appeared to nod off on a few occasions, as multiple reporters in the courtroom noted.
Donald Trump still calls former president ‘Sleepy Joe’
Trump, tied for the oldest president to be sworn into office, has long painted his 2020 and initial 2024 Democratic opponent, former President Joe Biden, as “Sleepy Joe.”
Biden dropped out of the presidential race in July 2024 after his disastrous debate performance raised questions about his mental acuity. Trump called him “sleepy Joe Biden” as recently as March in an interview on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle.”
“The only thing I totally admired about sleepy Joe Biden is the following…within minutes he’s sleeping and you have cameras watching him. I could never do that.”
Why was Donald Trump in Saudi Arabia?
As president, Trump is expected to make several international trips, but he is bucking tradition by choosing to make the Middle East the destination for his first foreign trip rather than Canada or Mexico.
The countries he is scheduled to visit are some of the richest in the world, and they invest heavily in military and security technologies. Saudi Arabia committed $600 billion in investments in America, and Trump has said he is aiming for $1 trillion in investments from the region.
Ahead of his visit, Trump said he was considering renaming how the U.S. refers to the body of water that connects those countries from the Persian Gulf to “Arabian Gulf.” He is also poised to accept a luxury $400 million Boeing 747-8 plane from Qatar to use as his Air Force One.
Zooming out, political relations in the region are also impactful in the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza.
Trump left Saudi Arabia and arrived in Qatar on May 14, according to pool reports.
Contributing: Aysha Bagchi, Haadiza Ogwude, Susan Page, Kim Hjelmgaard, Francesca Chambers, USA TODAY Network
Kinsey Crowley is the Trump Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach her at kcrowley@gannett.com. Follow her on X and TikTok @kinseycrowley or Bluesky at @kinseycrowley.bsky.social.
