Could Donald Trump — the man who memorably branded Jeb Bush “low energy,” claimed Hillary Clinton lacked the “stamina” to be president, and spent much of the current race hounding “Sleepy Joe” — finally have tuckered himself out?
Trump has canceled several recent interviews, and Politico Playbook reported on Friday that a campaign adviser explained to one spurned outlet that the 78-year-old candidate was simply too tired to chat at the moment:
In a conversation earlier this week, when describing why an interview hadn’t come together just yet, a Trump adviser told The Shade Room producers that Trump was “exhausted and refusing [some] interviews but that could change” at any time, according to two people familiar with the conversations.
The Trump campaign has already denied this. Spokesperson Karoline Leavitt called the story “unequivocally false,” then the official Trump War Room campaign account tried to discredit Playbook co-author Eugene Daniels, suggesting that displaying his Beyoncé fandom at a Pride event proves he’s a bad journalist.
POLITICO's @EugeneDaniels2 (pictured below) is nothing more than Kamala's mouthpiece, completely detached from reality.
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) October 18, 2024
President Trump has has done TWICE as many TV interviews as Kamala to date — not to mention more radio, print, and podcast interviews than Kamala. https://t.co/kqJeCwTeJD pic.twitter.com/q8Ubp1PRs3
It’s easy to see why the campaign would deny this. There are two possible explanations for an adviser offering up the “exhaustion” excuse, and neither is flattering for Trump.
First, he may actually be incredibly tired. Trump is old and seems to have poor sleep habits, as evidenced by him regularly posting to Truth Social after midnight and falling asleep repeatedly in his criminal trial this past spring. A presidential campaign is a grueling ordeal for anyone, and Trump has seemed especially “low energy” at some recent events, from last weekend’s town hall turned listening party to Tuesday night’s rally in Atlanta, where the “strangely muted” former president remarked, “I’ve been doing this for 42 days straight without a rest”:
a sleepy, sedated-sounding Trump has put his audience in Atlanta to sleep. pic.twitter.com/j8WlStMzba
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 16, 2024
But it’s also possible that “exhausted” was just an excuse the adviser came up with on the fly for why the campaign is calling off interviews where they think Trump is more likely to go off the rails. As Playbook noted, the canceled interviews were all with “neutral media outlets”; in recent weeks he’s backed out of sit-downs with 60 Minutes, CNBC’s Squawk Box, and NBC in Philadelphia. Trump has been doing lots of interviews recently, appearing on various “bro podcasts” and Fox News programs. The one challenging interview he did this week, with Bloomberg editor-in-chief John Micklethwait, turned into a bit of a fiasco, and Trump later claimed he “got hoodwinked to go on that.”
The campaign has good reason to limit Trump to lower-stakes and more sycophantic interviews. The New York Times reported on Friday that the Trump team is worried that rambling and erratic behavior is hurting him:
[Some Trump advisers] worry that Mr. Trump’s impetuousness and scattershot style on the campaign trail needlessly risk victory in battleground states where the margin for error is increasingly narrow.
At a time when his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, has stepped up her attacks on him as “unstable,” Mr. Trump has struggled to publicly hone his message by veering off script and ramping up personal attacks on Ms. Harris that allies have urged him to rein in.
“When he’s good, he’s great, and when he’s off message, he’s not so great,” said David Urban, a Trump adviser. “I don’t think anyone is really changing their mind at this point, but when he distracts from his biggest, broadest messaging, it’s counterproductive because the Harris campaign uses it to turn out their voters.”
Indeed, the Harris campaign has found highlighting Trump’s instability particularly effective:
Internal Harris campaign research showed that one of the most effective ways to persuade voters to support the vice president was by portraying Mr. Trump as unstable and Ms. Harris as a steady leader who would strengthen America’s security, according to two Harris officials who insisted on anonymity to describe private data.
And on Friday afternoon both candidates weighed in on Trump’s alleged exhaustion:
VP Harris on Trump: "I've been hearing reports that his team at least is saying he's suffering from exhaustion...being president of the United States is probably one of the hardest jobs in the world...If he's exhausted being on the campaign trail is he fit to do the job?" pic.twitter.com/J9CI8gEP2Y
— CSPAN (@cspan) October 18, 2024
Q: "Kamala Harris says she thinks your exhausted. That's why you're cancelling events."
— CSPAN (@cspan) October 18, 2024
Former President Trump: "What event did I cancel? She doesn't go to any events. She's a loser...She should have been last night with the Catholics...I'm not even tired. I'm exhilarated." pic.twitter.com/UzwxBkssFG
The only silver lining in this story for the Republican ticket is that some voters may actually find Trump’s alleged weariness relatable. After nearly a decade of his political antics, many Americans certainly are exhausted.
This post has been updated.
