What Trump’s late-night postings tell us about what’s on his mind at 2am

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Donald Trump’s sleepless nights and escalating habit of posting on social media into the early hours may increase the likelihood of a serious mistake or miscalculation, experts warn, with the US President seen apparently dozing in public on several recent occasions.

The US President has been an avid social media user throughout his time in office, first on X (formerly Twitter) before migrating to his own custom-made platform, Truth Social. But observers suggest the growing frequency and aggression of his posts in his second term indicate an increasingly “erratic” world leader.

Analysis by The i Paper shows Trump posted 565 times in April in total – more than double his activity at the same point in his first term, when in April 2018, he posted 257 times on X. Almost 200 of his posts last month were shared between the hours of 9pm and 7am Eastern Daylight Time (EDT).

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Trump’s April posting frenzies, while often leaping between unconnected topics, often coincided with major developments in the Iran war. He regularly posted threats against Iran, as well as posts about political foes and claims election fraud lost him the 2020 presidential election.

After an episode of 60 Minutes looking at how Pope Leo had emerged as a leading critic of the war, Trump posted shortly after 9pm calling the Pope “weak on crime and terrible for foreign policy”, sharing articles about complaints against Democratic gubernatorial candidate Eric Swalwell, followed by an AI image of himself as a Jesus-like figure shared just before 3am.

He later claimed to have thought the image depicted him as “a doctor” but the post was ultimately deleted.

The President appears to have stayed awake until after 4am posting about his promised blockade of Iranian ports, his White House ballroom, and a conspiracy theory claiming Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton orchestrated a smear campaign to falsely accuse him of collusion with Russia during his first presidential campaign. He posted 16 times that night.

White House officials have previously told the media that Trump’s late-night posts are made either by the President himself or by staff who are catching up on the articles and posts Trump read the previous day.

On 17 April, the President celebrated the Strait of Hormuz reopening, after claiming to have ended his 10th war. That night, he appears to have been on his phone from 9pm–1.15am, posting 26 times about his “no tax on tips” policy, his speech at Turning Point USA in Arizona and a forthcoming meeting with China’s Xi Jinping. He also reposted an apparently AI-generated image of himself with “the peace President” in large text.

The following night he hit his April record with 32 overnight posts, including eight reposts in ten minutes between 1.05am and 1.15am – covering his grandparenting, his Arizona speech and a criticism of European leaders taking credit for Iran.

The President shared videos about his February State of the Union address, a visit to Graceland, his tax policy, and the Artemis II moon flyby. He also reposted claims his impeachment in 2019 was “literally treason” – a theme which appears to have dominated his night-time thoughts throughout April.

After Trump was pictured apparently dozing off during a healthcare affordability event with the media in the Oval Office on 23 April, another night of prolific posting followed. He posted 18 times between 12.04am and 2.45am, covering his extension of his ceasefire in the Iran war, his political enemies, and the “Obama “birth tourism” conspiracy theory.

The White House did not respond to The i Paper’s questions about his apparent tiredness at this event and others, but Trump and his administration have repeatedly said the President is always wide awake and focused, and simply sometimes rests his eyes or is photographed blinking.

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President Donald Trump was allegedly caught falling asleep multiple times during a briefing at the White House’s Oval Office. Health officials were briefing Trump about reduced drug prices and actions taken to uplift healthcare services. Trump is officially the oldest President to serve in office in the United States, and has raised health concerns including dementia, cognitive dissonance and mobility issues. #donaldtrump #whitehouse #ovaloffice

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The data suggests the 79-year-old may have had just a single night of uninterrupted sleep last month, with 24 April being the only night when he did not share any posts.

After a day hosting King Charles and with talks taking place in Saudi Arabia, Trump was up at 4am on 29 April to post a meme showing him carrying an automatic rifle with the words: “No more Mr Nice Guy!”

A post by Trump on Truth Social on the evening of 23 April, the day he was pictured with his eyes seemingly closed in the Oval Office (Photo: TruthSocial/@realDonaldTrump)

The barrage of social media tirades and memes and have sparked renewed questions about the 79-year-old President’s mental fortitude, with questions over what the relentless posts suggest about his ability to govern.

Trump’s sleepless month

The healthcare event was not the first recent suggestion of Trump’s exhaustion. On 26 March, he appeared to fight to stay awake as his Cabinet discussed military options in Iran.

On 6 April, while standing behind the US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth in the White House briefing room during an event in front of the media, his eyes again appeared to close and his head dip.

He has previously frequently been accused of falling asleep during meetings and court appearances, although he and his administration have repeatedly said the President only closes his eyes to think.

His habit of posting in the early morning has continued into May. Trump re-shared a post showing himself with “all the [Uno] cards” at 11.20pm local time on 3 May, having posted the same image at 4.15am the previous morning mere minutes after a separate post in which he called US House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries a “thug” and a “danger to our country”.

Other AI-generated images have included one of himself, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and a woman in a bikini together in the Reflecting Pool at The Lincoln Memorial, which is currently under renovation.

Trump has a penchant for sharing AI-generated images on his Truth Social account (Photo: TruthSocial/@realDonaldTrump)

The President has previously said he goes to sleep between 12am and 1am, but his flurry of overnight Truth Social posts and reposts often continue hours later. Trump, as well as his aides and allies, have repeatedly said the President is able to function on very little sleep.

Among the US President’s after-hours Truth Social messages are screenshotted posts from X (Photo: TruthSocial/@realDonaldTrump)

The White House and Trump himself have repeatedly dismissed concerns about the President’s general health and fitness for office.

Approached for comment on the subject of this story, the White House described Trump as “the most transparent and accessible President in American history to the media”.

“His return to the White House saved the legacy media from going out of business. The press know that they can’t get enough of Trump, and the American people appreciate hearing his first-hand insights on topics of importance to our country,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle told The i Paper.

How much sleep does the President need?

Many world leaders have claimed that they run on very little sleep. Former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher is famously said to have slept for just four hours a night, while Sanae Takaichi, the Prime Minister of Japan, said she gets just two to four hours.

However, experts who spoke to The i Paper were keen to point out differences between those figures and Trump when it comes to late-night activity.

“Thatcher, I think that whatever else can be said about her, she would have tended to focus on policy matters; Trump is more like this childlike entertainer at times, coming up with these really strange posts saying he is going to be doing something quite extreme, or of course the AI images,” said Dr Jack Clayton, a US policy analyst.

“[Trump] seems to be kept awake by a desire to create some kind of AI imagery or embark on some kind of rant that could be a very old vendetta, things some might say are trivial, rather than a pressing policy issue like the Middle East or even an economy that’s struggling at the moment.”

Simon Mabon, a professor in international politics at Lancaster University, said Trump’s “relentless” and “incessant” habit of posting through the night was symptomatic of his style of presidency.

“This sort of populist support base and platform that he’s operating on means he needs to be reacting immediately, getting out ahead of the news cycle and spinning things pretty quickly,” he told The i Paper.

Evidence from scientific studies has linked prolonged poor sleep – through irregular sleeping patterns or long-term sleep deprivation – to an increased risk of diseases like dementia and Alzheimer’s.

Trump’s father was diagnosed with the latter shortly before his death in 1999, but there is no evidence he suffered from poor sleep, or that Trump is showing signs of either illness.

‘The capacity for serious mistakes is huge’

Mabon warned that Trump’s apparent lack of sleep, combined with his age and question marks over his health, could mean that his capacity for mistakes is high.

“If you look at the sheer volume of his posts on Truth Social, they are relentless, incessant, often coming in the middle of the night without the necessary sleep or time for reflection, at a time when immediacy is so prominent in what he’s trying to do,” he said.

“The capacity to make pretty serious mistakes or miscalculations or to misread events could be huge.”

Asked about the general impacts of sleeplessness, Professor Aidan Horner, an expert in cognitive neuroscience at the University of York, told The i Paper that “regular, good quality sleep is critical to both physical and mental health” and that “decision-making is clearly impaired in individuals who are sleep deprived”.

However, Horner added that he believed these facts “are likely completely unrelated to the erratic nature of the President’s posts and wider behaviour. He has a history of posting egregious content on social media platforms … Trump and his cadre of sycophants are responsible for all of this, not any lack of sleep Trump might be experiencing.”

Clayton said Trump appeared to be “more erratic” in this term than his first four years in office.

He continued: “The thing that’s bizarre about Donald Trump, and late-night posts and AI stuff demonstrate this, is that he’s obviously the President of the United States but he kind of, at times, is acting just a bit like a social media troll.

“You’d imagine or at least hope that he is actually having to deal with policy matters on some level during normal waking hours, and maybe he’s not having to do that quite as much when people are generally asleep.”

But “regardless of his sleep pattern, irregular or not, I think the world and much of the country, whether it’s politicians dealing with him or others, know they’re dealing with someone that’s a very erratic individual who is not going to be the most consistent and stable person,” he added.

“It’s objectively strange behaviour – I don’t think you need to be a psychologist or sleep expert to say that – and it’s unimaginable that a previous world leader would create these kinds of stories and conversations.”

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