The White House launched a counterattack on Tuesday against CNN's reporting on President Donald Trump's health and his tendency to appear to nod off in public. Using its Rapid Response account on X, the White House shared a series of screenshots depicting CNN personalities and guests with their eyes closed, often mid-blink or with heads bowed, in an apparent effort to suggest they were asleep.
White House Strategy
The posts aimed to illustrate that anyone can be made to look asleep in a still image, a tactic the White House has repeatedly employed to counter the "sleepy Trump" narrative. Among those featured were CNN's Kate Bolduan, Kevin Liptak, Dana Bash, Jake Tapper, and Brianna Keilar, along with The Wall Street Journal's Josh Dawsey and Harvard Medical School professor Dr. Jeremy Faust.
Response from CNN
Dana Bash responded to one of the posts with a brief quip: "If only ! Thanks for watching." The White House posts coincided with Trump's latest scheduled physical examination, as scrutiny over his health, mental acuity, and overall fitness for office continues to intensify.
The White House Rapid Response account posted multiple images, including one asking if Bolduan and her guest fell asleep mid-interview, and another questioning Liptak's health. Additional posts targeted Bash ahead of her 55th birthday, and included a flashback of Tapper appearing to doze off. The account also questioned Dr. Jeremy Faust's condition and claimed Keilar failed a cognitive exam, contrasting it with Trump's perfect score.
