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Good afternoon, Press Pass readers. Winter is coming, literally and figuratively. The new year will be difficult for House Republicans as they face the challenge of holding a razor-thin majority in the leadup to the midterms, which will see numerous members fleeing D.C. to be back home so they can campaign to keep their seats. There might even be some more surprise resignations. To stay up to speed on everything as we head into 2026, consider upgrading your membership to Bulwark+. You’ll gain access to everything we publish, plus ad-free podcasts, secret content, and more. Sign up at the link below:
Today’s edition is about President Donald Trump’s exhaustion. Was he napping during that cabinet meeting? Or do we call it dozing? Either way, should it prompt concern? At least one Republican senator is thinking about these questions.
In addition, we have new details on Nancy Mace’s airport incident from back in October. The new information makes things look even worse for the House Republican vying for the South Carolina governorship. Lastly, AI is being integrated into workplaces across the country, whether workers themselves like it or not. I don’t like it, and I try to explain why I think it should matter to you as well. All that and more, below.
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Dozy Don
When President Donald Trump appeared to be dozing off during a cabinet meeting last week, it naturally raised the issue of whether the 79-year-old grandfather still has the basic physical ability to handle the rigors of the presidency. Even the New York Times noticed, and not just in the opinion pages. Trump’s eyes were closed for a cumulative six minutes over the course of the meeting—often as his cabinet members showered him with praise.
Old people are prone to napping. That’s fairly uncontroversial. But after former President Joe Biden’s waning stamina became such a frequent Republican talking point (and as a result, a defining feature of the national narrative about him) questions about whether Trump can endure the daily demands of the office seem beyond just fair. They seem appropriate.
Biden made the issue unavoidable by giving the worst performance in the history of American presidential debates, compelling Democrats to push him to withdraw from the race to make way for Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump hasn’t had a public embarrassment at that level. But since he is showing many of the same struggle-with-sleep characteristics, I felt it would be worthwhile to ask some of our elected officials if they were concerned.
Quite a few Republicans I spoke to declined to comment on Trump’s midday slump. Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) said he hadn’t heard of it at all and declined to watch a video that I had at the ready of Trump snoozing. This was expected. Republicans tend to refuse to comment on things they don’t want to admit they’ve seen, and when the thing in question is being put right under their nose, they sometimes simply run away.
But as her GOP colleagues fled around her, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska)—who does sometimes criticize the president—did offer some insight. She chalked up his drowsiness to “long meetings” and perhaps too much time online—the president posted on Truth Social 158 times between 8 p.m. and midnight the night before his soporific cabinet session.
“He doesn’t keep very good bedtime manners, does he?” Murkowski said.
“I don’t know that dozing off or closing your eyes means an indicator of anything. I’m not worried about it,” she added. “If anything, he seems to have more energy than the Energizer Bunny on any given day. He kinda wears everybody else out. Maybe if you start seeing this as a pattern, I’d wanna pay attention.”
A pattern may actually be emerging already: December 2 was hardly the first time reporters had witnessed Trump’s droopy-eyed mugging while the president was on the clock. During a November Oval Office event, Trump closed his eyes for a prolonged period and rubbed them like the drowsiest member of Snow White’s seven dwarves.¹ And while in court last year, Trump nodded off with a slackened jaw, bobbing his head sluggishly, according to reporters in the camera-free room.
Following last week’s cabinet performance, Fox News’s medical analyst Dr. Marc Siegel compared Trump to legendary inventor Thomas Edison, citing the need for a quick nap on the fly.
“What President Trump does on a daily basis, if you sleep three hours or four hours a night, you’re probably going to close your eyes, whether you are 79 or 49,” he said. “I don’t think that matters.”
“Thomas Edison believed in the ten-minute nap, by the way,” Siegel added. “What would they say? We wouldn’t have electricity, right?” (As the Independent drily pointed out, “Edison actually invented the incandescent lightbulb, not electricity.”)
Perhaps Trump’s sleepiness is the result of long nights spent in the sickly blue light of his phone screen. Perhaps he needs a good power nap. Who among us? Then again, if this were Biden, the comparisons on Fox News would be to the Crypt-Keeper, not Edison.
But good luck asking if something more is going on. The president gets irate when asked