Donald Trump appeared to fall asleep during a Cabinet meeting as viewers were left baffled. The president’s meeting was being broadcast live to millions of people across the world, but many viewers soon noticed that Trump started to look rather vacant. It soon appeared that the 79-year-old closed his eyes and slouched in his chair for almost 20 minutes as the meeting continued around him.

His supposed nap kicked off after he encouraged his cabinet to speak about their accomplishments in the last 12 months, while hordes of cameras kept recording, with avid watchers taking to social media to label him as “sleepy don”. Another posting to X wrote: “Dr Oz shhhhhhhhhh…. Quiet. Don’t wake him up.”

Although White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was quick to deny the allegations, claiming Trump was engaged and listening.

In a statement to the Daily Mail, she added: “President Trump was listening attentively and running the entire three-hour marathon Cabinet meeting.”

Earlier in that same meeting, Trump had criticised questions about his health, saying instead reporters should be focusing on what’s happening at the US border.

The president added: “I sit here and do four news conferences a day. I ask questions from very intelligent lunatics. You people. I give the right answers. There’s never a scandal. There’s never a problem. I give you answers and solve your little problems.

“You go back, and you can’t find anything, but you do, you do stories about Biden was in wonderful health. The guy couldn’t do a news conference for eight months.

“If I go one day, I had one day where I didn’t do a news conference. ‘There’s something wrong with the President.’”

But his alleged nap comes at a bad time for rumours of the President’s declining health.

The 79-year-old is the oldest president ever elected, and despite releasing the results of an MRI test to the public on Monday, many believe that his falling asleep in meetings, bruises on his hands, and swollen ankles could all be signs of something more serious.

The released results claimed the scan was merely a preventative measure “to identify issues early, confirm overall health, and ensure he maintains long-term vitality” and that the President’s results were “perfectly normal”.

The president’s physician, Navy Captain Sean Barbabella, added: “His abdominal imaging is also perfectly normal. All major organs appear very healthy and well-perfused. Everything evaluated is functioning within normal limits with no acute or chronic concerns”.

Speaking to reporters in Cabinet about the rumours, he said: “You people are crazy, I’ll let you know when there’s something wrong.

“There will be some day, that’s going to happen to all of us. But right now, I think I’m sharper than I was 25 years ago, but who the hell knows.”