{"id":16523,"date":"2026-07-25T06:48:44","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T01:48:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=16523"},"modified":"2026-07-25T06:48:44","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T01:48:44","slug":"cnn-panel-laughs-during-shot-of-trump-with-his-eyes-shut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=16523","title":{"rendered":"CNN Panel Laughs During Shot of Trump &#8216;With His Eyes Shut&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"post-body\">\n<p>The panel on CNN\u2019s coverage of the make-up White House Correspondents\u2019 Dinner burst out laughing at a shot of President <strong>Donald Trump<\/strong> \u201cwith his eyes shut\u201d on Friday as he awaited his speech slot.<\/p>\n<p>The original dinner, on April 25, was cut short after <strong>Cole Tomas Allen <\/strong>allegedly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/online\/watch-pulse-pounding-social-media-clips-show-chaotic-aftermath-of-shots-fired-at-whcd\/\">opened fire<\/a> outside the ballroom at the Washington Hilton Hotel. He was quickly apprehended, and while no one was killed in the ordeal, a Secret Service agent <a href=\"https:\/\/abc7ny.com\/live-updates\/whca-dinner-shooting-live-updates-suspect-armed-multiple-guns-knives\/18970525\/\">suffered<\/a> non-life-threatening injuries after being struck by gunfire atop an armoured vest. Allen has since <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/05\/11\/trump-cole-allen-whcd-pleads-not-guilty-assassination-attempt.html\">pled<\/a> not guilty.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just wanna acknowledge it,\u201d said CNN\u2019s <strong>John Berman<\/strong> on Friday, looking at Trump through the camera. \u201cHe is striking the pose that has led to a lot of pictures and a lot of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/news\/commander-in-sleep-liberals-have-field-day-as-a-tilting-trump-seems-to-nod-off-in-front-of-reporters\/\">internet memes<\/a>, which is the president with his eyes shut. And a lot of people have wondered at the White House if the president occasionally dozes off at times. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s what\u2019s happening here. He seems to be thinking, or maybe resting or listening intently.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s running his remarks through his head, with his eyes potentially closed,\u201d chimed in CNN contributor \u2014 and Trump\u2019s former White House Communications Director \u2014 <strong>Alyssa Farah Griffin<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOr, he\u2019s asleep,\u201d surmised CNN\u2019s <strong>Van Jones<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 to laughter from the panel.<\/p>\n<p>Berman added that \u201ceither way,\u201d he doesn\u2019t think \u201cit\u2019s an image the White House would like for the evening.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe doesn\u2019t know he\u2019s on camera right now,\u201d Jones offered. \u201cSometimes you do run the things through your mind\u2026 Everybody thinks Donald Trump doesn\u2019t care about certain things. I think he\u2019s a performer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While CNN\u2019s <strong>Scott Jennings<\/strong> didn\u2019t chime in directly during the referenced conversation, earlier in the evening, when asked what he thought Trump might be thinking, he responded, theoretically quoting Trump, \u201cWho approved the order of speaking here, and could you have them in my office Monday morning?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Watch the clip above via CNN.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>New: The Mediaite One-Sheet &#8220;Newsletter of Newsletters&#8221;<\/strong><br \/>Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/subscribe\">Subscribe now!<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\nn.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;\nn.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\nt.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,\ndocument,'script','https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The panel on CNN\u2019s coverage of the make-up White House Correspondents\u2019 Dinner burst out laughing at a shot of President Donald Trump \u201cwith his eyes shut\u201d on Friday as he awaited his speech slot. The original dinner, on April 25, was cut short after Cole Tomas Allen allegedly opened fire outside the ballroom at the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16524,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Screenshot-2026-07-24-at-6-21-09-PM-scaled.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsweek-trending"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}