Jimmy Kimmel has turned one of Donald Trump’s most frequent attacks on Joe Biden against him after the former president appeared to fall asleep during the first day of his historic criminal trial in New York.
According to court reporters present in the courtroom on Monday for the first day of Mr Trump’s hush money trial, the former president appeared at times to be struggling to keep his eyes open during proceedings, with some going so far as to claim that he had actually fallen asleep.
Mr Trump’s campaign has furiously denied that he fell asleep, blasting the claims as “100% fake news,” but the reports of his brief nap were pounced upon by social media users who spawned a new nickname for the 77-year-old online: “Sleepy Don.”
On his late-night show, Kimmel pointed out the irony of Mr Trump falling asleep during his court appearance when he has repeatedly slammed president Biden as “Sleepy Joe” for his various gaffes.
“If Biden is ‘Sleepy Joe,’ I guess that makes you Doze-O the Clown,” Mr Kimmel said.
“Imagine if Joe Biden fell asleep in the court on the first day of his trial,” he added. “Trump would be calling him ‘Comatose Joe,’ Fox News would be talking about this until Christmas, but not old Donny Nappleseed.”
However, Mr Kimmel did spot an upside.
“It’s nice to see even Donald Trump is exhausted by Donald Trump,” he said.
Mr Trump became the first US president in history to go on trial on Monday as jury selection got underway.
He is facing 34 felony counts for allegedly falsifying business records in a bid to cover up hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels. He allegedly paid Ms Daniels $130,000 in exchange for her silence over a 2006 affair.
The former president is also involved in two other criminal cases accusing him of conspiring to overturn the result of the 2020 election and another case related to retaining classified documents. Trump denies all the charges against him.
