Cabinet secretaries rolled out a $15 billion steel plant planned for eastern Iowa on Monday, Sept. 28, 2026, and at the Oval Office event he himself had convened, President Donald Trump, 80, appeared to fight to keep his eyes open.
Trump slumped behind the Resolute Desk during the announcement. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick praised the president from inches away, and Trump’s eyelids looked ready to close. Energy Secretary Chris Wright then took up the administration’s industrialization agenda and its new partnership with Mesabi Metallics; as he did, the president’s eyes shut and his head drooped forward.
Rewant Ruia, chairman of Mesabi Metallics, spoke about the project while Trump angled his face toward the executive, eyelids fluttering open and closed. Clips of the scene raced across social media.
The footage does not establish that Trump was asleep.
Aaron Rupar, who posted video of the event on X, wrote: “Trump is struggling to stay awake on camera.”
Commentator Brian Krassenstein, sharing footage of the Oval Office incident on X, wrote: “I have no doubt in my mind that Donald Trump fell asleep multiple times today. He’s just tired, just like we’re all tired of him.”
Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel said in his Sept. 29 monologue: “Then, only minutes after invoking the name ‘sleepy Joe Biden,’ nappy Don Trump drifted off to dreamland on live TV.” He added: “Even Mitch McConnell was like, ‘Bro, wake up!'” Kimmel also dubbed Trump “Teddy Doze-evelt” and “President Don Fattingly.”
Tangents in the Oval Office
Trump opened with a line about the steel industry, saying, “Our steel industry is roaring back to life.” He called the event “historic.”
A string of tangents followed. Canada drew his scorn in blunt terms, and he ranked the country among the worst in the world. He touted his renaming of Lake Ontario to “Lake America,” a fight with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney over trade and tariffs that grinds on. Reporters’ questions came next, and his answers were quiet and clipped, his speech slurred.
What’s at Stake in Iowa
The White House says the facility is expected to begin production in 2030 and create at least 1,750 permanent jobs. The Mesabi Metallics project will be one of the largest steel plants in the country.
Two Trump-endorsed Iowa Republicans attended alongside other state officials — Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa, and Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa — and the announcement appeared designed to lift them. Several Trump-backed candidates have put distance between themselves and the president as his approval rating has sunk to record lows, and Hinson is one of them. A Marist poll showed Hinson trailing Democratic Senate candidate Josh Turek by 8 points.
Asked why Republicans were struggling in the state, Trump said he did not know, pointed to unspecified Democratic actions he said had hurt the country, and dismissed the polling as fake.
A special session of the Iowa legislature approved $1.4 billion in tax incentives for the Mesabi plant, and the law was signed on Friday, Oct. 2, by Gov. Kim Reynolds.
The $15 billion Mesabi Metallics plant is to be built in Lee county, Iowa, and had originally been scheduled for Minnesota. The shift to Iowa, “where Republicans are struggling in the midterms,” has attracted attention, along with the financial history of Mesabi’s parent company, Essar Global. As of Oct. 7, the project has “incited skepticism over whether the plant will be built and delivered as promised.”
Doug May, who worked 43 years as a steelworker at a mill in Granite City, Illinois, characterized the announcement as “political pandering,” given the timing and how tariffs are hurting Iowa farmers, in comments to the Guardian published Oct. 7.
New Alarm Over His Leg
A luncheon with technology executives at the White House on Tuesday, Sept. 29, ended with the president taking questions from reporters, and scrutiny of his physical condition intensified from there. His aide Margo Martin posted a video that captured an odd stance, his left leg looking limp and the knee bending inward. Makeup was slathered across his right hand.
An explanation was what commenters online demanded, and the president might be wearing a leg brace, one of them suggested. Shortly before Sept. 30, the Irish Star reported Trump had been “throwing his left leg forward” and was “unusually” unsteady on his feet.
A round of golf in August 2025 with former Major League Baseball pitcher Roger Clemens and Clemens’ son Kacy, at Trump National Golf Club in Virginia, showed the president appearing to drag his right leg and move sluggishly. Ben Meiselas of MeidasTouch reviewed that footage and described him as dragging the leg and unable to hold a straight line.
A Pattern of Dozing Off
Trump is the oldest person ever inaugurated as president. By the Daily Beast’s count, he has been captured napping at least 23 times at events since retaking the Oval Office. Moments before appearing to drift off on Sept. 28, he had resurrected his old nickname for his predecessor, “Sleepy Joe Biden.”
Critics accused him of dozing at Pope Francis’ funeral on April 26, 2025, where his blue suit, worn against the Vatican dress code, also drew criticism. An investment forum in Saudi Arabia on May 13, 2025, brought him the label “Sleepy Don” after he appeared to fall asleep there, and the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit on July 15, 2025, produced the same scene.
A cabinet meeting on Dec. 2, 2025, caught him leaning to one side with his eyes closed as Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed Ukraine. The signing of the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act on Jan. 14, 2026, brought another apparent nod-off, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins standing behind him. A Memorial Day ceremony on May 25, 2026, drew significant backlash after he appeared to fall asleep there. Sen. Lindsey Graham’s funeral and the 9/11 memorial at the Pentagon are two more occasions where he has appeared to nod off.
The speculation has not moved Trump, who told a cabinet meeting that the previous session had gotten boring. He had not slept, he insisted; his eyes were shut because he wanted to leave.
Trump was diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency in July 2025. In October 2025 he underwent imaging at Walter Reed that he described as an MRI; his physician later said it was a CT scan. He is frequently seen with swollen ankles and dark bruises on his hands, and he has shown signs of mental slip-ups and slurred words in public. He and the White House maintain that everything is fine.
More than 30 doctors signed a letter earlier in 2026 warning of a steep and dangerous decline, saying he is not mentally fit for office and calling for his removal with the greatest urgency. The signatories pointed out that the U.S. keeps more than 5,000 nuclear warheads ready to launch on the president’s order.
