U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio found himself in a tense moment during a congressional hearing when he was confronted with a video that allegedly shows President Donald Trump dozing off during an official meeting.
The situation arose when Democratic Representative Ted Lieu questioned Rubio about reports claiming that Trump had fallen asleep during important meetings.
“You’ve been in several meetings with President Trump, and in a moment I’m going to show a video from one of those meetings. […] I’m going to ask you to focus on President Trump, and you’ll see that he is asleep while you are speaking,” Lieu said before presenting the video to support his point.
After the clip was shown, the Secretary of State firmly rejected the accusation, stating that he had never seen the president asleep during official engagements. According to Rubio, Trump “doesn’t sleep” and frequently contacts government officials in the middle of the night.
“That’s false. That’s false. I’ve never seen him fall asleep. On the contrary, the guy doesn’t sleep, which is a big problem because he calls me at two in the morning, he calls me at five in the morning,” Rubio said in response to Lieu.
Lieu then displayed footage from a cabinet meeting in which Trump appears seated with his eyes closed while Rubio was speaking. The congressman argued that the images contradicted the secretary’s testimony, while Rubio continued to insist that the allegations were untrue.
The exchange is part of a broader political debate surrounding Trump’s health and physical stamina. Critics of the president point to incidents in which he has appeared sleepy during public events, while allies argue that he maintains an intense work schedule and sleeps only a few hours each night.
oh my goodness — Ted Lieu played Rubio a video of Trump sleeping while Rubio tried to talk to him during a cabinet meeting. Then this exchange happened:
RUBIO: I’ve never seen him fall asleep
LIEU: I’m gonna show you a video that shows you just lied to Congress
*plays… pic.twitter.com/yccC9GcYoq— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 3, 2026
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Photo and video: Public Domain / X @atrupar. This content was created with the assistance of AI and reviewed by the editorial team.
