`Sleepy Don': Trump appeared to fall asleep at own trial, reporter says

The first day of Donald Trump's trial into the hushmoney scandal ended with no jurors chosen, and at least one participant seeming to fall asleep — the defendant.

New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman wrote in a story Monday that “Trump seemed alternately irritated and exhausted,” adding that he “appeared to nod off a few times, his mouth going slack and his head dropping onto his chest.”

She wrote that Trump's lead lawyer passed notes to him for several minutes before “Trump appeared to jolt awake and notice them.”

Haberman confirmed her observations to Jake Tapper on CNN in a video published Tuesday: “He appeared to be asleep; repeatedly his head would fall down. There have been other moments in other trials ... where he appeared very still and seemed as if he might be sleeping, but then he would move. This time he didn't pay attention to a note that his lawyer Todd Blanche passed him, his jaw kept falling on his chest, and his mouth kept going slack.”

In a separate CNN interview, Haberman said Trump had glared at her in the courtroom after hearing she'd made the claim. “He made a pretty specific stare at me and walked out of the room.”

She added: “If anyone falls asleep who's a criminal defendant in a case we're going to report on it but he doesn't like when such things are reported, and I'm guessing — I don't know — that that's what this was about.”

Trump's campaign was quick to disavow the report, telling The Independent newspaper and others: “This is 100% Fake News coming from `journalists' who weren't even in the court room.” (Haberman was in fact inside the courtroom.)

President Joe Biden's campaign made hay of the news, tweeting out the clip while others on social media referred to the former president as “Sleepy Don,” a reference to Trump's nickname of “Sleepy Joe” for Biden. Others went with #Donsnorleone or The Nodfather.