No sleep tonight, oh great one?
By Scott Ortkiese | June 1, 2026
Overview
The following is a documented record of what Donald Trump has actually written and posted on Truth Social during his second term. No interpretation is required. The posts speak for themselves. Every quotation below is verbatim, directly attributable to the sitting President of the United States, drawn from archived Truth Social posts and independently verified by multiple news organizations. This is not a commentary. This is a case file.
The Posts: In His Own Words
The Kennedy Center: Attacking a Federal Judge
On May 29, 2026, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled that Trump had no legal authority to rename the Kennedy Center without an Act of Congress. Trump posted a 581-word response. In full relevant part:
“Shockingly, a judge appointed by Barack Hussein Obama, Christopher Cooper, ruled that the Kennedy Center, which was going to close in early July for large-scale renovations and construction due to years of neglect, decay, and poor maintenance… did not have the right to [add the name Trump]… and the name Trump must be removed.”
“I took great pride in taking over a losing Institution, and looked forward to making it into a Great and Prestigious WINNER for Washington, D.C., and indeed, the United States of America. Unfortunately, Judge Cooper and the Radical Left would rather see it DIE than have President Trump transform it into something that everyone could be proud of.”
“Based on the fact that the Radical Left Democrats care more about opposing your favorite President, ME, than saving a dying Performing Arts Center… we are going to be working with Congress to transfer this failing Institution back to them.”
“Judge Cooper should be ashamed of himself! I cannot be involved with a situation where danger to the public is allowed to flourish in plain and open sight unless I am free to do what I do better than anyone else… I have no interest in continuing what could only be a hopeless journey into ‘NEVER NEVER LAND.’ There has never been a President of the United States who has been treated so unfairly by the courts as I.”
He also accused the judge of conflict of interest and stated he “should face charges.” He signed off: “Thank you for your attention to this matter. President Donald J. Trump.”
For context: Trump had purged the Kennedy Center’s existing board and replaced it with Fox News hosts Laura Ingraham and Maria Bartiromo, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, and other loyalists, who then voted unanimously to rename the center after him.
America’s 250th Anniversary: Replacing the Nation’s Birthday with Himself
After several artists declined to perform at concerts planned for the United States’ 250th anniversary celebration, Trump posted:
“I understand Artists are getting ‘the yips’ having to do with their performance… So I am thinking about bringing the Number One Attraction anywhere in the World, the man who gets much larger audiences than Elvis in his prime… and the man who some say is the Greatest President in History (THE GOAT!), DONALD J. TRUMP, to take the place of these highly paid, Third Rate ‘Artists,’ and give a major speech, rallying the Country forward.”
Minutes later, he followed with:
“We should have a giant MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN RALLY, for 250, instead of having overpriced singers, who nobody wants to hear, whose music is boring, and yet who do nothing but complain. Cancel it.”
The national anniversary concert was duly cancelled. The replacement: a partisan political rally headlined by Trump, at the nation’s founding monuments, on the 250th birthday of the American republic.
Easter Sunday During Wartime: “Power Plant Day”
On Easter Sunday, April 5, 2026, while the United States was engaged in an active military conflict with Iran, Trump posted the following on Truth Social:
“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the F**kin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell, JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP.”
He followed that post hours later with a specific deadline: “Tuesday, 8:00 P.M. Eastern Time!”
The post was published on the holiest day of the Christian calendar. It threatened strikes on civilian power infrastructure whose targeting is prohibited under the Geneva Conventions. It included a profanity, an Arabic religious invocation, a specific operational deadline broadcast to the entire world, and a signature. Legal experts noted the threatened rationale could extend to virtually any civilian structure in the country.
The Iran War Launch: Threats at Midnight
On March 1, 2026, the day after U.S. forces bombed Iran, Trump posted just after midnight:
“Iran has just declared that they will retaliate strongly today, harder than ever. THEY BETTER NOT DO THAT, BECAUSE IF THEY DO, WE WILL HIT THEM WITH A FORCE THAT HAS NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE!”
That same day, while American soldiers lay dead, Trump posted a video mocking Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell as the fictional weekend-excursion corpse “Bernie” from the 1989 film Weekend at Bernie’s.
The Iran Surrender Fantasy: Posted Twice, Identically
On May 18, 2026, Trump published the following:
“If Iran surrenders, admits their Navy is gone and resting at the bottom of the sea, and their Air Force is no longer with us, and if their entire Military walks out of Tehran, weapons dropped and hands held high, each shouting ‘I surrender, I surrender’ while wildly waving the representative White Flag, and if their entire remaining Leadership signs all necessary ‘Documents of Surrender’… The Failing New York Times, The China Street Journal (WSJ!), Corrupt and now Irrelevant CNN, and all other members of the Fake News Media, will headline that Iran had a Masterful and Brilliant Victory over The United States of America… The Dumacrats and Media have totally lost their way. They have gone absolutely CRAZY!!! President DJT.”
Eight days later, on May 26, three hours after returning from a medical examination at Walter Reed, Trump posted the exact same text, word for word, with no attribution, no repost notation, and no explanation. Mediaite confirmed the posts were character-for-character identical.
The GOAT Sessions: Midnight Self-Promotion at 36% Approval
On the night of May 10-11, 2026, between midnight and 12:45 a.m., with his approval rating sitting at 36%, Trump spent 45 minutes reposting content declaring himself the Greatest of All Time. Documented posts included:
-
The phrase “Greatest of All Time” in at least eight separate posts
-
An AI-generated image placing his likeness carved into Mount Rushmore
-
A prompt urging followers to “Retruth if you would vote for him for a fourth term”
-
A shared image reading: “Presidents come and go but he will forever be remembered as the GOAT.”
He had declared the same at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner invitation:
“In honor of our Nation’s 250th Birthday, and the fact that these ‘Correspondents’ now admit that I am truly one of the Greatest Presidents in the History of our Country, the G.O.A.T., according to many, it will be my Honor to accept their invitation.”
Middle-of-the-Night Conspiracy Marathons
On April 24, 2026, between 12:05 a.m. and 2:45 a.m., Trump posted more than a dozen times, then resumed at 7:33 a.m. Among the posts:
“If it is true, the 2020 Presidential Election should be permanently wiped from the books and be of no further force or effect! Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
He also posted a screenshot falsely attributing a quote praising himself to actor Clint Eastwood. PolitiFact confirmed the quote belongs to a former New Hampshire state representative. He shared Breitbart videos, Hillary Clinton conspiracy theories, and attacks on Chuck Schumer, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and Barack Obama, all between midnight and 3 a.m.
Analysis by the Daily Beast found Trump posted 189 times between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. in April 2026 alone, meaning 83 percent of April nights contained at least one nighttime post.
AI Violence as Presidential Communication
On May 22, 2026, the day after The Late Show’s final broadcast, Trump posted an AI-generated video on Truth Social depicting himself walking onto the Late Show set, grabbing Stephen Colbert, and throwing him bodily into a dumpster, before dancing to “YMCA” as the crowd cheered. The White House’s official government account reposted it with the caption: “Bye-bye.”
Trump had written separately on Truth Social:
“Colbert is finally finished at CBS. Amazing that he lasted so long! No talent, no ratings, no life. He was like a dead person. You could take any person off of the street and they would be better than this total jerk. Thank goodness he’s finally gone!”
“[Colbert’s cancellation is] the Beginning of the End for untalented, nasty, highly overpaid, not funny, and very poorly rated Late Night Television Hosts. Others, of even less talent, to soon follow. May they all Rest in Peace!”
The May 13 Pre-Beijing Blitz
The night before departing for a high-stakes meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Trump made 58 posts on Truth Social. Rather than addressing the active U.S.-Iran war or diplomatic preparation, the posts focused on the 2020 election, Barack Obama’s alleged “coup plot,” Hillary Clinton’s emails, James Comey, and QAnon celebrity General Mike Flynn.
The Numbers
MonthTruth Social PostsNighttime Posts (9pm-6am)Notable EpisodesApril 2026Not fully tabulated189 (83% of nights)Midnight conspiracy marathons, Easter “Power Plant Day” postMay 2026804Multiple documented sprees60+ posts in 14 hours, GOAT sessions, duplicate Iran postDec 2025High volumeFrenetic overnight160+ posts in under 5 hours
Approval Ratings During This Period
PollsterApprovalDisapprovalAmerican Research Group31%64%Economist/YouGov34%59%Quinnipiac34%, NY Times/Siena37%, Emerson College39%55%FiftyPlusOne Average (May 31)36.5%59.8%
The Verdict: What This Record Proves
Let us dispense with diplomatic hedging and state plainly what this documented record reveals about the fitness of the 47th President of the United States for the office he holds.
Donald Trump is not governing. He is raging. Night after night, from the residence of the White House, on a platform he personally owns, the most powerful human being on the planet spends his hours doing what a petulant, intellectually hollow, pathologically insecure man does when reality refuses to comply with his fantasies: he types. He types about himself. He types about his enemies. He types about how great he is. And then, apparently, he types the same things again eight days later without noticing.
The Easter Sunday “Power Plant Day” post alone should have ended this presidency. A sitting commander-in-chief, during an active, congressionally unauthorized war, used his personal public platform to threaten strikes on civilian infrastructure, attached a specific Tuesday deadline, added a profanity and an Arabic religious phrase for seasoning, and signed it with his name, broadcasting to every intelligence agency, adversary, and ally on earth that the man commanding U.S. nuclear forces operates with the impulse control of a drunk posting at last call. No general, no diplomat, no war cabinet apparently stopped him. Because nobody stops him. That is the governance model: “Let Trump be Trump,” while the world watches and wonders whether the next Truth Social post announces a war or a golf outing.
The 250th anniversary episode is, if anything, more revealing. On the occasion of the United States’ founding sesquicentennial-plus-one, when the nation’s birthday called for statesmanship and civic dignity, Trump’s response was to cancel the concert because performers refused to flatter him, and replace it with a rally about himself. He did not merely insert himself. He substituted himself for the country. That sentence should be read slowly: the President of the United States replaced the 250th birthday of the American republic with a celebration of Donald J. Trump. If that is not the textbook definition of malignant narcissism in a position of public trust, the dictionary needs revision.
The duplicate post deserves separate and sustained attention. On May 26, 2026, hours after a cognitive examination at Walter Reed, Trump published a 139-word screed he had already published verbatim eight days earlier. He did not note the repetition. He did not acknowledge it. He showed no awareness that it had happened. The White House offered no explanation. This occurred in the same week his own doctor noted a 14-pound weight gain, approaching clinical obesity, while 61% of Americans told pollsters they believed he had become erratic with age, including 30% of his own party. The man who spent four years mocking Joe Biden’s cognitive capacity for late-night television entertainment published the same post twice without noticing, three hours after a brain exam, and nobody pulled him aside.
The midnight posting record is not evidence of dedication or stamina, as his press secretary has claimed. It is evidence of a man who cannot sleep, cannot govern, and cannot stop. The Daily Beast documented 189 nighttime posts in April alone. Those are not the hours of a president. Those are the hours of someone in psychological crisis, with a phone. The same president has been photographed nodding off in Cabinet meetings, press conferences, and Oval Office events, then claims he was merely “bored.” He brags of sleeping four hours a night. He posts AI videos of himself throwing journalists into dumpsters. He demands that a federal election be “permanently wiped from the books.” He insists he draws larger crowds than Elvis. He posts his own face on Mount Rushmore. He does all of this on the public record, under his own name, as President of the United States.
The 25th Amendment was written for this. The Founders were students of history who understood that power corrupts, that ego untethered from accountability becomes tyranny, and that a republic’s greatest vulnerability is a leader who cannot distinguish himself from the nation he governs. They built a mechanism. The Republican Party will not use it. Trump’s cabinet will not invoke it. His enablers in Congress will not speak it aloud. That institutional cowardice, that calculated silence of men and women who know exactly what they are witnessing and choose re-election over republic, is the second indictment this record produces.
The Truth Social archive is public. It is timestamped. It is in his own words. History will not need to speculate about what this president was doing while America waited for leadership. History will simply read the posts.
Related reading
- A Lying Bastard’s Ledger: A Hundred Days of Donald Trump, Convicted by His Own Truth Social Account
- Trump: Genocide on Truth Social
- The U.S. Tariff Experiment: An Objective Assessment of Trump-Era Trade Policy
- The American People Are More Objective About President Trump's Actions Than Democratic Party Leadership
