Trump Exposes Media Lies: White House Logs Reveal Relentless Presidential Schedule

Paul Riverbank, 12/3/2025With questions swirling about President Trump’s stamina, new White House logs reveal long, packed workdays, directly challenging media claims of slowing energy. The dispute highlights a broader debate on age and presidential fitness, as both sides vie to shape public perception ahead of critical political moments.

Yet, behind the scenes at the White House, a different version of events is playing out. Internal logs, shared exclusively with the New York Post, paint a picture of a leader who, whatever you think of his politics, puts in a marathon’s worth of hours—a point his aides seem eager to drive home. These records, covering a stretch from November 12 through the 25th, aren’t public-facing documents. They catalog a blur of back-to-back meetings, early-morning calls with world leaders, and, on one day alone, a tilt toward the superhuman: 32 separate briefings, calls, and sit-downs, the last of which started well after dark in a conference room still humming with staffers.

“I cannot imagine anybody with more dedication and focus and work ethic than Donald Trump,” said Susie Wiles, one of the president’s closest advisers. There’s a quality in her voice that’s hard to fake—half pride, half exasperation—suggesting these days sometimes leave even his inner circle scrambling to keep pace. “The more that’s going on, the higher his level of function.” Offhand, it sounds like something you’d expect from a campaign, but staff say these late nights and unpredictable mornings are business as usual. According to one aide, who requested not to be named, the president’s phone sometimes rings before the sun even rises—another world leader, or perhaps just a cabinet secretary with an early dilemma.

What’s striking is how these internal records diverge from the neat, public-facing schedule that so often serves as fodder for armchair analysis. Critics, relying on the official daily rundowns posted to the White House website, notice that Trump’s mornings now start closer to noon than they did during his first term, and the number of televised events or press availabilities has dropped. The Times’ story made hay of these trends, casting them as signs of fatigue or caution.

Not surprisingly, the administration bristled at the coverage. The press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, fired off a statement almost immediately, calling the Times’ approach “half-baked” and the narrative “downright wrong.” She rattled off metrics—dozens of meetings, after-hours phone calls, streams of social media posts—that point, in her telling, to a president whose energy never flags. Trump himself, true to form, responded on Truth Social, declaring the coverage a “hit piece” and insisting, “President Trump never stops working.”

Of course, the optics war is relentless these days. The notion of presidential vigor—real or perceived—lands differently in 2024, when both party leaders are pushing 80 and concerns about their mental and physical stamina run just beneath the surface of every press conference. It was only a few years ago that an ailing Trump, fresh off a COVID diagnosis, made a point of appearing in public, waving from the White House lawn as if to underscore, visually, that retreat was not an option.

Scrutinizing these newly released logs, what emerges is a portrait not of a waning leader, but of a man locked into his routine, determined to dictate the terms of the conversation. There are long-haul flights—an Asian swing, a run through the Middle East—where, by all accounts, he outlasts even the younger staffers. Events go late, calls come early, and the dividing line between public and private labor blurs, not always for the cameras.

Still, numbers can only say so much. For every 12-hour stretch documented in the White House files, skeptics point to what they describe as “hidden slowdowns”: meetings that appear packed but, if attended, might reveal quieter moments or unrecorded pauses. And so, the argument loops back on itself—is a leader’s fitness best measured in scheduled events or in his capacity for improvisation late into the night?

What’s unmistakable is that the White House is eager to combat any suggestion of decline, even as, for now, the rhythm of Trump’s days remains, if anything, more frantic than measured. The public will inevitably draw their own conclusions, sifting through the dueling narratives in search of something real behind the headlines. Meanwhile, in that stretch between midnight and dawn, the calls—if staff are to be believed—keep coming.

Some stories catch on not for what they reveal, but for the questions they stir up, and President Trump’s day-to-day schedule is a case in point. Lately, there’s a growing chatter about whether the nation’s oldest-ever sitting president is beginning to slow down. It kicked into high gear after The New York Times published a piece detailing, with almost forensic scrutiny, a series of lighter daily calendars and an apparent dip in public appearances since Trump’s second inauguration.Yet, behind the scenes at the White House, a different version of events is playing out. Internal logs, shared exclusively with the New York Post, paint a picture of a leader who, whatever you think of his politics, puts in a marathon’s worth of hours—a point his aides seem eager to drive home. These records, covering a stretch from November 12 through the 25th, aren’t public-facing documents. They catalog a blur of back-to-back meetings, early-morning calls with world leaders, and, on one day alone, a tilt toward the superhuman: 32 separate briefings, calls, and sit-downs, the last of which started well after dark in a conference room still humming with staffers.“I cannot imagine anybody with more dedication and focus and work ethic than Donald Trump,” said Susie Wiles, one of the president’s closest advisers. There’s a quality in her voice that’s hard to fake—half pride, half exasperation—suggesting these days sometimes leave even his inner circle scrambling to keep pace. “The more that’s going on, the higher his level of function.” Offhand, it sounds like something you’d expect from a campaign, but staff say these late nights and unpredictable mornings are business as usual. According to one aide, who requested not to be named, the president’s phone sometimes rings before the sun even rises—another world leader, or perhaps just a cabinet secretary with an early dilemma.What’s striking is how these internal records diverge from the neat, public-facing schedule that so often serves as fodder for armchair analysis. Critics, relying on the official daily rundowns posted to the White House website, notice that Trump’s mornings now start closer to noon than they did during his first term, and the number of televised events or press availabilities has dropped. The Times’ story made hay of these trends, casting them as signs of fatigue or caution.Not surprisingly, the administration bristled at the coverage. The press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, fired off a statement almost immediately, calling the Times’ approach “half-baked” and the narrative “downright wrong.” She rattled off metrics—dozens of meetings, after-hours phone calls, streams of social media posts—that point, in her telling, to a president whose energy never flags. Trump himself, true to form, responded on Truth Social, declaring the coverage a “hit piece” and insisting, “President Trump never stops working.”Of course, the optics war is relentless these days. The notion of presidential vigor—real or perceived—lands differently in 2024, when both party leaders are pushing 80 and concerns about their mental and physical stamina run just beneath the surface of every press conference. It was only a few years ago that an ailing Trump, fresh off a COVID diagnosis, made a point of appearing in public, waving from the White House lawn as if to underscore, visually, that retreat was not an option.Scrutinizing these newly released logs, what emerges is a portrait not of a waning leader, but of a man locked into his routine, determined to dictate the terms of the conversation. There are long-haul flights—an Asian swing, a run through the Middle East—where, by all accounts, he outlasts even the younger staffers. Events go late, calls come early, and the dividing line between public and private labor blurs, not always for the cameras.Still, numbers can only say so much. For every 12-hour stretch documented in the White House files, skeptics point to what they describe as “hidden slowdowns”: meetings that appear packed but, if attended, might reveal quieter moments or unrecorded pauses. And so, the argument loops back on itself—is a leader’s fitness best measured in scheduled events or in his capacity for improvisation late into the night?What’s unmistakable is that the White House is eager to combat any suggestion of decline, even as, for now, the rhythm of Trump’s days remains, if anything, more frantic than measured. The public will inevitably draw their own conclusions, sifting through the dueling narratives in search of something real behind the headlines. Meanwhile, in that stretch between midnight and dawn, the calls—if staff are to be believed—keep coming.