On April 26, 2025, thousands gathered in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome to mourn the late Pope Francis at his official funeral. Among the attendees were many world leaders, including U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump.
Some photographs of the two caused a stir on social media, however, because they appeared to show the president with his eyes closed and sleeping.
1) "Sleepy Joe", the MAGA said. Trump falls asleep and snores at the pope's funeral. But let's see more evidence of Sleepy Don next⬇️ pic.twitter.com/aCP8phvGxP
— Jack's House ??Radio Free NAFO (@FluteMagician) April 26, 2025
Snopes readers searched the site and emailed us asking if the photos were real and if it was true Trump fell asleep at the funeral.
Key details of the images like Trump's clothes and the arrangement and color of the pews clearly matched official video footage of the funeral, though the low resolution of the images suggested they were significantly zoomed in on from a wider shot. Snopes found a stream showing Trump's activities during the service and was able to match timestamps to the images.
Searching for the original images using a Google reverse-image search only revealed social media posts sharing the claim. Both press photography and The Associated Press' stream of the funeral confirmed that Trump was wearing the same blue suit and tie in the photos, and Melania was wearing the same black veil. The pews had the same crimson velvet, and there was a gap in the pews when looking at Trump's left side. At least one official photo of Trump from Getty Images appeared to show him in a similar position with his eyes closed.
One particular stream from the Times of India, however, contained matches to the two images that went viral. The timecode 36:07 matched the right image, while 36:22 matched the left image.
Looking at the surrounding context, it didn't appear Trump was sleeping, and in fact, his movements before, during and after those moments indicated he was awake, possibly eating or chewing on something. The low quality of the images, combined with the shadows, made it look like Trump's eyes were closed at those moments, when in fact they may not have been.
We reached out to the administration for comment on the story. A spokesperson said the claim was "clearly false" and provided the following statement from Trump's communication director, Steven Cheung: "The President and First Lady honored the life and service of Pope Francis, and those who try to distract from that should be ashamed of themselves."
Snopes has been called upon to fact-check rumors about public figures being caught dozing off in the past. Did Biden fall asleep during a climate change conference in 2021? Did videos show Trump asleep at the 2024 GOP convention? Did Bill Clinton nod off during Biden's inaugural address? We checked the evidence on a case-by-case basis.