Trump campaign furiously denies that former president fell asleep in court during hush money trial

Donald Trump could be excused for a sleepless night before becoming the first US president to face trial on Monday, but his campaign team emphatically rejected claims he actually fell asleep in court.

New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman told CNN that Trump struggled to stay awake and eventually dozed off as jury selection got underway at his hush money trial in New York.

The claim sparked a wave of hashtags on social media and was leapt on by the Biden/Harris campaign - long dogged by Trump's nickname of 'Sleepy Joe' for the sitting president.

But it was dismissed as '100 percent fake news' by the former president's campaign team who insisted he was the victim of a malicious media.

'This is 100% Fake News coming from 'journalists' who weren't even in the court room,' they said in a statement.

Court napping? The ex-President appeared red-eyed as he sat through jury selection at his hush money trial at Manhattan Central Court in New York on Monday 

Trump with his legal team, from left to right: Todd Blanche, Emil Bove and Susan Necheles

New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman repeated the furiously contested claim on CNN

Jury selection is expected to last for the rest of the week as dozens of potential jurors are tested for potential bias against the ex-president who faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to disguise payments to former porn star Stormy Daniels.

More than 50 were rejected on the first day as Trump watched on from his seat at Manhattan Criminal Court.

'Trump appears to be sleeping,' Haberman tweeted from the room.

'His head keeps dropping down and his mouth goes slack.'

Biden has restrained himself from commenting directly on his rival's legal woes but the Biden-Harris HQ X account gleefully retweeted Haberman's remarks, later adding: 'Donald Trump falling asleep in court doesn't speak to him as an engaged, energetic candidate.'

Biden's campaign team issued a release purportedly about poll ratings entitled 'Wake Up Donald: After Stormy Abortion Ban Coverage, Trump Poll Memo Attempts to Hush Panic'.

There was even less restraint on social media where hashtags including 'DonSnoreleone', 'The Nodfather', and 'Sleepy Don' quickly went viral.

Journalists arrived early for seats in an overflow room to follow proceedings

Anti-Trump protesters gathered outside the courthouse on Monday morning

Trump arrives to attend the first day of his trial for allegedly covering up hush money payments linked to extramarital affairs, at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City

The anti-Trump Republican Lincoln Project joked that '#SleepyDon was up late rage-posting on Truth Social'.

'He's not changing his sleeping patterns and he can't have 10 diet cokes in the courtroom,' joked comedian Dana Goldberg. 'He's going to fall asleep every. single. Day.'

'To me, that's I mean, it's insane,' Rachel Maddow told viewers on MSNBC.

'It's also a reminder of how scary however scary and somber and important this is a reminder we are dealing with somebody who is just fundamentally buffoonish.'

But others posted footage of the many times the sitting president appears to have drifted off in public settings.

The former president appeared slightly pink-eyed in photos taken in court, but most reporters claimed that Trump remained focused throughout.

'Donald Trump sat stony faced, eyes narrowed and lips pursed as his lawyers did battle with prosecutors over how many salacious (and untrue) National Enquirer headlines could be shown to jurors and whether they could hear him say 'grab them by their p*****s' or whether they could only read transcripts of the famous Access Hollywood tape,' DailyMail.com's Rob Crilly reported.

'Trump dominated the space among his legal team.

'He leaned back in his chair or shifted forward to look at a video screen, like a silverback gorilla reminding the courtroom of who was boss.

'When a decision went against him—like when Judge Juan Merchan ruled he would not be recusing himself—he briefly showed his frustration, giving a furious little nod.

'But at other times he did his impression of a legal scholar: Brow furrowed, head tilted as if he were considering the judge's ruling on admitting Molineux evidence.'

Word of the hostile reporting appeared to get back to Trump who allegedly 'glared' at Haberman for several seconds as he left court.

The case revolves around payments allegedly made to Stormy Daniels to hide an affair

'He made a pretty specific stare at me and walked out of the room,' she told CNN.

'I want to be clear that I've seen lots of people fall asleep in courtrooms. I've seen jurors fall asleep. I've seen judges fall asleep.

'If anyone falls asleep who's a criminal defendant in a case, we're going to report on it.

'But he doesn't like when such things are reported and I'm guessing – I don't know – that that's what this was about.'