During the July 2024 Republican National Convention, in which former U.S. President Donald Trump was confirmed as the Republican nominee for president in the November election, many people online claimed they saw Trump asleep or dozing off in video clips of the proceedings.
Many posts pulled screenshots and clips of Trump on camera, seated, either with his eyes closed for an extended period of time or with his eyes appearing to droop for a moment as if he momentarily drifted off. In one clip, for example, Trump is clearly blinking, then closes his eyes for a few seconds, leans back, then opens them before leaning forward again. In another clip, Trump is sitting forward with his eyes closed for the entire duration of the footage.
We looked closely at those particular moments in the livestreamed footage of the event and found that while in one instance Trump appears to have his eyes closed in prayer alongside others doing the same, it is less clear in others whether he's simply resting his eyes or dozing off. As such, we rate this claim as a "Mixture."
The benediction conducted by the Rev. James Roemke, who prayed for Trump's safety and for the families impacted by the assassination attempt on the former president a few days earlier, begins at the 3:42:04 mark of the full livestreamed video below (courtesy of The Wall Street Journal). The people around Trump, including his just-announced vice presidential nominee, U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, also had their eyes closed for an extended period of time.
Social media users also claimed Trump dozed off based on what they saw in shorter clips excerpted from footage shot during another prayer, in this case delivered by Harmeet Dhillon, a Republican lawyer and activist. In the livestream, Trump can be seen blinking at the 3:44:00 and 3:46:17 marks. He briefly closes his eyes at both points and leans back in one instance.
It's possible Trump was dozing off and trying to stay awake in those moments, but we can't determine that with any certainty from the video alone. We have reached out to the Trump campaign to learn more about his physical state during the RNC, and will update this post when we learn more.
This is not the only rumor we've fact-checked about the physical condition of the presidential candidates. Previously, we looked at a false rumor about U.S. President Joe Biden falling asleep during a meeting with Israeli leader Naftali Bennett, and found no evidence that Trump passed gas during his hush-money court trial.