A new position has landed in the White House. Its main responsibilities—at least according to social media-fueled conspiracy theories—are to wake up the president when he inevitably falls asleep in public.
Rumors started floating around following a press conference during which President Donald Trump signed an executive order alongside Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to scale back the childhood vaccine schedule.
As the event dragged on, the president seemed to doze off while sitting down, until quickly jolting back up—at exactly the moment when the woman behind him touched her torso.
The scene quickly gained traction online, with users on social media theorizing the woman was somehow zapping the president awake by touching her shirt’s button. They dubbed her the “Zapper in Chief,” or simply (and more dramatically), “The Zapper.”
“She is The Zapper. She’s like a Batman villainess and she’s trying to tank democracy. We need to send out the Bat Signal,” a user said on X.
Another added: “Cant even call shit like this a conspiracy theory anymore bc everything thats actually happening in the world sounds like one anyway. what the hell. sure. The Zapper.”
Of course, the theory has no actual backing or proof. In fact, The Zapper is actually conservative activist and media entrepreneur Jayme Franklin, who wore a flashy scarf and a navy blue set to the function.
When she’s outside of the Oval Office, Franklin runs The Conservateur, a conservative politics and lifestyle publication catering to Christian women with stories like “Gen Z Is Leading America’s Catholic Revival.”
The publication also sells merch for readers, including the very scarf Franklin wore at the Oval Office meeting ($228) or a cap that reads “Make America Hot Again” ($45).
Since the clip went viral, Franklin has come out to address the sudden spotlight on her, saying she was constantly touching her belly because she is pregnant.
A real concern underlies the wild theories
Despite no evidence that Franklin is a Zapper—or that the button-powered zapping technology exists—the bizarre theory follows a series of events where the president has been caught seemingly falling asleep in public.
This summer, he notably appeared to doze off during Game 3 of the NBA Finals in Madison Square Garden. He also seemed to be napping during Sen. Lindsey Graham’s funeral last month.
These incidents stretch back beyond just this year: In a cabinet meeting last December, Trump seemed to fall asleep while on camera, and even in a courtroom ahead of his criminal investigation in 2024, Trump seemed to nod off despite facing 34 felony charges.
The issue has not gone unnoticed among medical experts. Jonathan Reiner, a professor of medicine and surgery at George Washington University, raised concerns about the president’s apparent daytime sleepiness in an op-ed for The New York Times this week.
The White House flatly dismissed such concerns when reached for comment.
“President Trump’s sharpness, unmatched energy, and historic accessibility stand in stark contrast to what we saw during the last administration when Democrats and the legacy media intentionally covered up Joe Biden’s serious mental and physical decline from the American people,” White House spokesperson Davis Ingle told Fast Company. “President Trump is the sharpest and most accessible President in American history who is working nonstop to solve problems and deliver on his promises.”
However, users on social media have definitely taken notice, particularly as Trump had vocally criticized his predecessor, President Joe Biden, whom he called “Sleepy Joe” during the 2024 election cycle.
A user added on X: “Imagine spending years talking about “Sleepy Joe Biden” and then doing this every time you have to listen to someone else talk for 5 minutes.”
