Inside Trump’s Sleepless, Exhausting Mad Dash to Election Day
Yes, he’s tired. Everyone is.
DONALD TRUMP’S JET, colloquially known as Trump Force One, is built for transcontinental flights, replete with seating, couches, and even a master bed in private quarters.
But there’s an unspoken rule on the Boeing 757: No one should lie down to sleep because Trump isn’t a napper.
“The boss doesn’t sleep. So you try not to sleep,” explained a weary Trump adviser. “The pace is punishing.”
In the 18 days since the beginning of October, Trump has held at least 28 in-person public events in 25 cities spread across 12 states on both coasts, according to a review of his public schedule and press accounts. And because Trump also likes to sleep in his own bed (usually in Mar-a-Lago), the campaign often flies in and out in a day and seldom spends 48 hours away from Florida. That adds extra sleepless hours on the campaign trail. So too does Trump’s penchant for calling confidants or posting on Truth Social well after midnight.
But the high-octane, no-sleep-till-Election-Day pace has come at a cost for the 78-year-old Trump.
In the past week, he’s sounded and looked more tired on the campaign trail. In a bizarre scene Monday, he cut a town hall short after two attendees had medical emergencies that interrupted the event, ordering up music and dancing on stage for 39 minutes. On Friday night, after his microphone stopped working at a rally in Detroit, Trump paced the stage, grimacing and shaking his head for nearly 19 minutes in obvious irritation. Meanwhile, on Friday morning, Politico reported he canceled an interview with the podcast The Shade Room because he was “exhausted,” which his campaign denied.
The truth, according to those who have spoken with and know Trump, is that the exhaustion is real. But it’s also explainable, given the long hours that would wear down anyone—and have worn down many on staff. One’s just not allowed to acknowledge it, let alone complain about it, during a frantic finish to a high-stakes campaign.
“Of course he’s tired,” said one adviser. “Who wouldn’t be tired? I know the campaign isn’t supposed to say that. But it’s true. And it’s also true he’s kicking ass.”
Inside Trump world, acknowledging that the campaign’s most punishing leg may, indeed, be taking a toll on the elderly ex-president is verboten. It’s not just that Trump personally recoils at the perception that he’s anything but a horse, it’s that the workaholic, high-energy brand is central to his political appeal.
It’s why aides responded so caustically this past week, as Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign drilled down on the he’s-exhausted attack line in an effort to frame him as weak and unstable. The vice president has launched a new phase of her campaign questioning Trump’s fitness for the campaign trail and accusing him of “hiding.”
“I’ve been hearing reports that his team . . . says he’s suffering from ‘exhaustion,’ and that’s apparently the excuse for why he isn’t doing interviews,” Harris told reporters in Grand Rapids, Michigan on Friday as she chided him for not debating her or participating in a CNN town hall. “We really do need to ask: If he’s exhausted being on the campaign trail, is he fit to do the job?”
A short while later, Trump made sure to take questions from the press on the tarmac in Romulus, Michigan where he bashed Harris for failing to show up the night before at the Al Smith dinner for Catholic charities in New York City.
“She doesn't go to any events. She's a loser,” Trump said, pointing out he sat earlier that day for a Fox & Friends interview and campaigned without rest for 48 straight days.
“Tell me when you’ve seen me take even a little bit of a rest,” he asked. “I’m not even tired, I’m really exhilarated. You know why we’re killing her in the polls?”
The truth is somewhere in between. For starters, the race is essentially deadlocked, according to the polling averages in the seven swing states. Secondarily, Trump has been keeping a brisker pace of events and interviews than Harris, according to recent media analyses. Since October 1, Trump has conducted 21 media interviews, including 7 separate longform podcasts that sometimes last an hour or more, according to his staff.
Harris’s campaign did not provide comparable numbers, even as it has stepped up questioning Trump’s mental stability by pointing out his slip-ups and nonsensical rambling. “You would be worried if your grandpa acted like this,” former President Barack Obama said of Trump on Friday.
If Trump’s “hiding,” as Harris has said, he’s doing a poor job of it. But he has scaled back on the type of places where he will go. His interviews are now almost exclusively in friendly forums. He skipped a 60 Minutes sitdown, unlike Harris, who also ventured into hostile territory for a tense Thursday interview with Fox News’s Bret Baier. Trump also rescheduled or canceled interviews on CNBC and NBC.
Unlike Harris, Trump did sit on stage Tuesday with Bloomberg editor-in-chief John Micklethwait at the Economic Club of Chicago, where he engaged in a contentious discussion about the economy, tariffs, and trade.
But he also subsequently acknowledged that he got “hoodwinked” into doing the event—not having known it was an interview beforehand. Trump fumed about the event later on Trump Force One, according to a source who heard him bitterly complain about it: “Let’s just say he wasn’t happy.”
By that point, Trump had been on the campaign trail for seven straight days in six other cities. A stop in Coachella Valley in California was followed by two events in Arizona on Sunday and then a swing to Oaks, Pennsylvania for the town hall that he wound up ending early with musical accompaniment. On the way there, at 12:48 a.m., Trump posted to Truth Social to trash a new movie about his relationship with infamous attorney Roy Cohn.
“A FAKE and CLASSLESS Movie written about me, called, The Apprentice (Do they even have the right to use that name without approval?), will hopefully ‘bomb,’” Trump ranted. The X account for The Apprentice happily recirculated Trump’s post and called it “an endorsement.”
That Trump in the waning days of his campaign would be up in the early morning hours trashing a little-known movie came as no surprise to those who know him. And it’s not because they believe he’s in some sleep-deprived stupor. Rather, he can’t resist swinging at every pitch.
“He’s a counterpuncher. That’s his nature,” said an adviser who didn’t want Trump to post about the movie. “Even if he was fully rested, he still would have done it.”
According to those who have flown with Trump, he’s in high spirits about the campaign. None expressed fears about his health. They said Trump refuses to sleep by lying down in his Trump Force One private quarters, on a bed adorned with Parisian silk sheets. Instead, chin down, he catnaps while sitting upright in a plush leather chair embroidered with his family crest.
The only staffer who has managed to stay with Trump on virtually every leg of every flight is Taylor Budowich, who turns 35 next week, and serves as a combination of top strategist, Mr. Fix It, and traveling companion with whom the ex-president can bro out.
“Only Taylor, the thirtysomething, can keep up with him,” said a campaign adviser.
By contrast, Trump’s campaign co-managers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita take turns flying with the candidate as the other works from a campaign base camp.
“Chris and Susie know you don’t sleep in front of the boss. It’s like Nightmare on Elm Street,” said one of Trump’s traveling companions. That companion recalled how during the 2016 campaign Rudy Giuliani was widely laughed at on Trump Force One because of his habit of taking boozy naps.
“Nobody wants to look like Sleepy Rudy,” the person said. “We’ll sleep after we win.”
Marc, sorry, but this reads like you got access to get played. Reads as a very credulous piece. At every juncture in the piece where interpretation is required, it reads like Trump's team supplied you with the interpretation. So the fascist team wanted you to tell us that Trump is not crazy or demented, but just tired, because he doesn't take naps because he's so driven and dedicated. And you did it. You know that this guy is a con man, right? You knew that going in.
Has the Bulwark become the stenographer for the Trump campaign? You are sane-washing this dangerous horrible man. The false equivalence between Trump and Harris in this piece is infuriating.