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Trump Sleeps, Lies, and Rambles: The Dangerous Double Standard in Media Coverage [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-07-17
Imagine President Biden standing frozen on a stage, unable to read the room while the world’s cameras roll. Imagine him dozing off during a major industry summit, or telling a wildly inaccurate story about a dead uncle who warned him about a terrorist years before the terrorist was even known. Imagine Biden expressing surprise that someone he personally appointed was, in fact, appointed. You don’t need to imagine the media response — we’ve seen it. Days of breathless coverage, hot takes on “decline,” and endless punditry about “fitness for office.”
But when Donald Trump — the oldest person elected president — does exactly that, the media largely shrugs.
Let’s take a closer look at Trump’s recent behavior:
Trump froze on stage at the FIFA Club World Cup trophy ceremony, seemingly unaware that he was supposed to exit. FIFA President Gianni Infantino had to motion him off the stage as Chelsea celebrated their win. The moment, caught on camera, was described as “such an embarrassment.” Source:
https://twitter.com/BlueGeorgiaGA/status/1809969502298628203.
At the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit, Trump fell asleep on stage — head down, eyes closed — while others spoke. It wasn’t a brief nod. It was an old man dozing off in front of a crowd, and it would have broken the news cycle for a week had it been Biden.
During that same event, Trump told an imaginary story about how his uncle, a professor at MIT, warned him about Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber. Except: Kaczynski never went to MIT and Trump’s uncle died more than a decade before Kaczynski was identified as the Unabomber. As CNN’s Daniel Dale fact-checked:
https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/14/politics/fact-check-trump-unabomber-mit-uncle/index.html.
Trump also forgot that he appointed Jerome Powell as Federal Reserve Chair, saying: “I was surprised he was appointed.” As journalist Aaron Rupar put it succinctly on Bluesky:
https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.bsky.social/post/3kiqjqt5xog2p.
On Jeffrey Epstein, Trump recently stated that “only bad people” want to keep the case alive and pinned the whole thing on Democrats — despite the fact that Epstein was arrested, jailed, and died while Trump was president and Bill Barr was Attorney General. Source:
https://www.independent.co.uk/tv/news/trump-epstein-boring-case-federal-investigation-vcc04e9e5.
Oh, and in a bizarre aside, Trump also promised to obtain Coca-Cola’s secret formula and return the “real Coke” to America — a move mocked as pure nonsense when Coca-Cola responded by ignoring him completely. Source:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-promise-on-coca-cola-recipe-fizzles-out-immediately-as-coke-blanks-him.
As Heather Cox Richardson noted in her July 15th newsletter, Trump’s once-vaunted “dominance” is fading, replaced by episodes that “project confusion.” Source:
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/july-15-2025.
When Biden stumbled on a word or walked stiffly, it becomes a symbol of decline. When Trump confabulates entire events, nods off, or forgets his own presidency, it’s treated like quirky stagecraft — or ignored.
This double standard is not just frustrating — it’s dangerous. Trump is not just showing signs of age. He’s spouting falsehoods, losing track of history, and displaying confusion that should alarm voters and journalists alike.
The public deserves to know whether he’s fit for the responsibility of the presidency. If we can't trust the media to apply the same level of scrutiny to Trump, then democracy is left weaker — and the public less informed.
It’s long past time for the media to stop grading Trump on a curve. If this behavior came from Biden, the headlines would have written themselves: unfit, fading, confused. The same should be true for Trump.
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