Donald Trump's RNC Speech Appears to Send Attendees to Sleep — Video

Some attendees at the Republican National Convention reportedly fell asleep as Donald Trump delivered his keynote speech in Milwaukee on Thursday.

The Context

The former president delivered the longest convention speech in modern history at just under 93 minutes, as he formally accepted the GOP's nomination for the 2024 presidential election.

Trump used the occasion to brand Joe Biden "the worst president in history," before adding: "America's future will be bigger, better, bolder, brighter, happier, stronger, freer, greater and more united than ever before. Quite simply put, we will very quickly make America great again."

The former president also reacted to narrowly surviving an assassination attempt on Saturday after a gunman opened fire on his rally in Pennsylvania, leaving him with a bleeding ear and one of his supporters dead.

He commented: "This beautiful crowd didn't wanna leave me. They're incredible people. Bullets were flying over us yet I felt serene."

What We Know

After the speech finished, an NBC News reporter said it was generally well received, but that he had noticed some people falling asleep while Trump was talking.

Referring to Trump supporters live on the network, he said: "They were sort of enthralled with what he was saying. It was a long speech as you said, the longest I think of any convention in modern history, and there were times when people had to sit back down.

"But for the most part I started asking people 'what did you think of the speech?' They said they liked the speech, people acknowledged it was very long, some people fell asleep that were around us and again people sat down."

A 20-second clip of the NBC News reporter's comments was shared on X by MediasTouch, a self-styled "pro-democracy" media outlet, where it received more than 125,000 views and 630 shares.

Another X user posted a six-second clip showing the audience, and a number of people appeared to have their eyes closed, which they said was because they were "visibly falling asleep."

This clip was also widely shared receiving on X, receiving over 138,000 views and 600 reposts.

The clip was also shared by James Singer, a Biden campaign spokesperson, who added: "Christ. People fell asleep."

When approached for comment by Newsweek Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung replied: "The only person asleep is Crooked Joe Biden."

Views

Trump's speech was criticized on social media for its length, meandering nature and the Republican's description of a fictional serial killer as "the late great Hannibal Lector."

Speaking on CNN former Barack Obama chief strategist David Axelrod said: "This is the first good thing that's happened to Democrats in the last three weeks. This really reminded everyone why Donald Trump is fundamentally unpopular outside this room."

Polling guru Nate Silver initially praised the speech on X, commenting: "It's a weird but pretty good speech. The past few weeks have gone about as badly as possible for Democrats, and they're likely underdogs against Trump regardless of who they nominate, but the opportunity to reset the campaign with a non-Biden nominee is a twist of good fortune."

However he later changed his mind posting: "Fully RETRACT and RESCIND, sometimes it seems like both parties are trying to throw this election."

Update 07/19/24 at 6:34 a.m. ET: This story has been updated with comment from a Donald Trump campaign spokesperson.