Trump Nods Off After Claiming Kids Get “Soda Bottle” Worth of Vaccines
President Donald Trump dozed off during the signing ceremony for his executive order changing the childhood vaccine schedule Monday.
The ceremony started off like many others in the Oval Office: Trump making some wild claims flanked by other White House officials and a guest.
In this case, Trump was rambling about vaccines alongside Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya, right-wing podcaster and influencer Jayme Franklin, and White House adviser and deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller.
“I saw this early on and I’ve seen proof of it, where they have a vaccination that looks like the size of a, a bottle of soda poured into a little child’s, uh, body.
And bad things happen in many, too many cases,” Trump https://x.com/Acyn/status/2086890728786178557" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">said.
Trump: They have a vaccination that’s the size of a bottle of soda poured into a child’s body. https://t.co/8P1ZoGUvEz" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">pic.twitter.com/8P1ZoGUvEz
— Acyn (@Acyn) https://x.com/Acyn/status/2086890728786178557?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">August 10, 2026
But shortly after that, Trump began to https://x.com/Acyn/status/2086893117685514585" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">drift off, even as speakers such as Kennedy and https://x.com/Acyn/status/2086893883041210492" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Bhattacharya directly looked at and addressed him.
While the NIH director was speaking, Trump appeared to fully fall https://x.com/atrupar/status/2086893747032244667" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">asleep, his head leaning down on his right side, before catching himself.
holy shit Trump is OUT https://t.co/8XQ2iBmQoW" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">pic.twitter.com/8XQ2iBmQoW
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) https://x.com/atrupar/status/2086893747032244667?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">August 10, 2026
A few minutes later, when taking questions from the press, Trump https://x.com/atrupar/status/2086896692440228087" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">answered a question about escalation in the Iran war while sounding hoarse and fatigued.
a hoarse and exhausted-sounding Trump on a massive escalation in Iran: "We have that ability if we want to do it.
You'll find out." https://t.co/gymMAXXpOb" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">pic.twitter.com/gymMAXXpOb
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) https://x.com/atrupar/status/2086896692440228087?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">August 10, 2026
The executive order itself is fully based on right-wing conspiracies and misinformation about vaccinating children, drawing from disproven claims about a link between vaccines and autism (which Kennedy is https://newrepublic.com/article/188497/rfk-anti-vaccine-public-education" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">famous for pushing) and the supposed harm caused by combining certain vaccines into fewer shots, which the government’s own Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says is https://www.cdc.gov/vaccine-safety/about/multiples.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">completely safe as of this writing.
Meanwhile, the U.S. is experiencing a https://newrepublic.com/post/213515/rfk-jr-35-year-record-high-measles" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">35-year record high for measles, with more cases of the disease in the last 18 months than in the previous 25 years combined.