The Daily Beast did an analysis of President Donald Trump’s schedule and his use of “executive time” and found that he’s not rolling into the office until at least 11 a.m. most days.
According to the report, for the last three months, the Beast calculated three public appearances by the president in Washington in the whole month of June. The few public events he did have were isolated to anything beginning at 11 a.m. or later. The only exception is the G7 summit in France, where Trump came in 45 minutes late to a meeting.
On all but four days in June, Trump had “executive time,” which he spent beginning at 8 a.m.
The same thing happened in May, when Trump spent all but five days out of the month having his “executive time.” In May, all of his public schedules listed his “executive time” as starting at 8 a.m.
In May, 26 out of the 31 days that Trump had “executive time” in the morning, he had 11 appearances before 11 a.m. Four were him playing golf, three were while he was 12 hours ahead while visiting China, the analysis found. That leaves four days and in those four days, one event was at 10:25 a.m., the following day he gave a commencement speech to the Coast Guard Academy. On May 5, he was scheduled to sign a proclamation at 10:30 a.m., but showed up an hour late. On May 26, he was on his way to Walter Reed Hospital to get his third annual physical.
In April, there were six cases of pre-11 a.m. public events. One was his disastrous appearance at the U.S. Supreme Court during the oral arguments of his birthright citizenship case, which he ultimately lost. The Easter Egg Roll started at 10 a.m., though he didn’t speak until 10:48 a.m. That weekend he left to play golf, and another he did an executive order signing at 9 a.m. After that, no one saw him for a week until he welcomed King Charles just before 11 a.m.
It was a running joke in his first term that “executive time” meant watching cable news, rage-posting on social media about it or calling in to defend himself. Now it appears that the “executive time” might be a moniker for getting some extra sleep.
“He often appears to doze off during public events in the late afternoon, including in the Oval Office, at round tables and during Cabinet meetings at the White House,” characterized the Beast. The last such incident was on June 26.
The recent book by New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan explained that Trump is known to stay up all night.
“Occasionally, aides couldn’t reach him during the hours between eight and ten, when they soon came to realize [that] meant he had stayed up all night, on the phone or watching television or both, only to finally catch some sleep around four or five in the morning,” the book said.
On one such morning, staff reported that Trump’s staff couldn’t reach him. An aide checked on him, finding he was still asleep. Trump continues to be a “night owl,” the book describes. When the first lady does sleep at the White House, the two don’t sleep in the same bed.
The only time Trump is up before 11 a.m., the Beast analysis found, is when he goes to play golf.
For the most part, however, any events before noon are rare, the report found. The most recent was the noon bill signing at the U.S. Capitol that never happened. Trump didn’t even arrive at the building until after 1 p.m.
In the past Trump would sometimes post on Truth Social about something he saw on television that aligned with when the referenced topic aired. Examples like that, however, are growing rare if at all.