President Donald Trump appeared to struggle to stay awake during the inaugural session of his Board of Peace initiative on Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026, with cameras multiple times showing the 79-year-old leader sitting with his eyes closed as international dignitaries spoke in Washington, D.C.
Trump delivered remarks lasting more than 45 minutes before taking his place onstage at the Donald J. Trump U.S. Institute of Peace, where he then spent several hours battling visible fatigue throughout the three-hour gathering. His eyelids noticeably drooped while former British Prime Minister Tony Blair was speaking, less than an hour after Trump finished his own speech.
At one moment, Trump quickly straightened up when applause broke out, opening his eyes abruptly. He seemed slightly slumped with his eyes shut while the Bahraini delegation addressed the audience, and again snapped upright when Kuwait’s representative approached the podium. Cameras also captured his eyelids sagging during Major General Jasper Jeffers III’s briefing on the Gaza stabilization force.
The display added to a string of recent public events in which the oldest president ever elected has appeared to drift off in front of reporters. Trump’s eyes were fully closed at several moments during a whole‑milk bill‑signing last month. He also seemed fatigued at a marijuana‑rescheduling executive order signing, looked worn down during a December Cabinet session, and was caught sleeping at a Rwanda–Democratic Republic of the Congo peace agreement signing.
The president has pushed back against claims that he sleeps through official meetings. During his most recent Cabinet session last month, Trump insisted he did not doze off at the December gathering, saying he had only closed his eyes because things became “pretty boring.” He also argued that cameras had simply captured him blinking, even though footage suggested otherwise.
In a separate discussion with New York magazine, Trump expanded on his Cabinet meeting comments, calling the sessions “boring as hell” and admitting he “can’t wait to get out.”
White House staff secretary Will Scharf offered a different interpretation of Trump’s closed-eye moments. “It’s not dozing. Sometimes if he’s thinking about something — and I made that mistake at first too — he adopts a pose,” Scharf told reporters. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt described Trump as “actively listening” in those instances.
The tired‑looking moments came even after Trump proclaimed his Board of Peace the “most prestigious board ever put together” at the start of the event. When the three-hour meeting ended, Trump stayed seated while other global leaders gathered around him as he signed fundraising commitments. He passed documents to nearby attendees to hold up and handed out pens as though participating in a traditional White House bill‑signing.
Trump’s recurring habit of closing his eyes during meetings, combined with his well‑known late‑night posting on Truth Social, has increased scrutiny over the 79‑year‑old’s fitness to serve.
The president has explained certain physical symptoms by citing health conditions, attributing hand bruising to heavy aspirin use for blood‑thinning and ankle swelling to chronic venous insufficiency. His physician, Navy Capt. Sean Barbabella, has continued to state that Trump is in “excellent health.”
Trump opened Thursday’s Cabinet meeting by speaking for nearly 25 consecutive minutes before noting that not all members would be able to talk in order to save time. “We’re not going to go through the whole table,” he said.
Trump has repeatedly insisted he feels as energetic as he did 40 years ago, even as video clips increasingly show him struggling to remain attentive during long public events and meetings with world leaders and top administration officials.
