Donald Trump is facing fresh scrutiny after appearing to doze off during a September 11 memorial ceremony.
The 80-year-old president attended the Pentagon commemoration in Arlington, Virginia, on Thursday rather than the main Ground Zero gathering in New York, where all other living presidents assembled. Viewers streaming the Virginia event quickly circulated clips showing Trump with his eyes closed and head slumped, prompting an immediate wave of online outrage.
“Watching the 9/11 memorial and Trump is asleep,” one viewer posted in response to the stream.
“Trump is literally falling asleep at the wheel at the Pentagon Ceremony #911,” wrote a second observer. A third fired back with sharper language: “They just showed Trump at the Pentagon and he is f—ing ASLEEP!! JHC”
The Virginia appearance had already drawn attention because of its last-minute scheduling. Trump had originally been expected at the World Trade Center site, but memorial organizers informed his administration of a standing policy barring political figures from addressing the crowd. The National Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum has maintained that prohibition since 2012, offering instead a nonpartisan space for remembering the 2,977 victims. Trump opted for the Pentagon ceremony, where he was permitted to speak.
The sleeping allegations land amid broader questions about Trump’s stamina and conduct at solemn events. Social media users noted the incident recalled previous moments when the president appeared to struggle to stay alert, including during a November 2025 press conference. A persistent online theory has even suggested Trump relies on a staffer—dubbed the “Zapper woman”—to keep him awake during important appearances.
The Pentagon ceremony came just two days after Trump delivered remarks at a Tunnel to Towers Foundation event, where he offered a dramatic account of his own presence at Ground Zero in the attack’s aftermath. He described being evacuated from a damaged building by two “big, strong” firemen who lifted him under the arms and ran with him as the structure threatened to collapse.
“The United States Steel building was creaking, really creaking, and we thought it was going to fall down,” Trump said during Tuesday’s event. “We thought it was coming down on top of us, and two firemen, big, strong guys. And I’m not the smallest guy in the world. They grabbed me under the arms, said, ‘Got to get out of here.'”
He continued: “And they literally lifted me up. This is not easy to do. I’m big. They lifted me up and they started running with me.”
Trump also claimed he dispatched construction crews to assist with recovery efforts. “For three months after Sept. 11, the flames raged in the rubble of Ground Zero. For nine months, rescue and recovery crews worked day and night on the site,” he said. “I want to just thank my people. I took a lot of my — I was building a big building in New York and I took the whole crew right down there after this happened and they had no hesitation. Everyone went down with me.”
Those assertions drew swift pushback from Trump’s own family. Fred Trump III, 63, the president’s nephew, posted on X that the claims offended him so deeply he felt compelled to break his usual silence about his uncle.
“I try not to comment personally about my uncle, but his claim that he brought a crew of workers to help at the site so offends me that I need to speak out,” he wrote.
“He was not building a ‘big building’ at the time. The only crew he claimed to bring to the site would have been secretarial and accounting employees from Trump Tower. I knew many of them, and pretty sure they were not capable physically to help (if they could, I am sure they would try).”
New York Magazine labeled Trump’s Ground Zero account a “weird lie,” prompting the president to defend himself on Truth Social.
“I was there, obviously not on the same day as the collapse, but shortly thereafter, with a large group of Construction Workers,” Trump posted. He added that “everything” he had said at the Tuesday event had been “exactly accurate.”
The back-and-forth over Trump’s 9/11 history has now been eclipsed by the visual of him apparently struggling to keep his eyes open during the very ceremony meant to honor the dead. Critics seized on the contrast between his self-aggrandizing tales of heroism and the passive image of him nodding off at a memorial.
Trump’s Truth Social account had not addressed the sleeping allegations as of Thursday evening.