‘Holding on for Dear Life’: Trump Struggles to Climb Plane Stairs on His Own Before a Man in Uniform Rushes In as Viewers Zoom In on One Troubling Detail
President Donald Trump shocked critics after revealing he would skip Donald Trump Jr.’s wedding in the Bahamas.
He claimed he needed to stay in Washington over Memorial Day due to government matters like the Iran war he started months ago.
But somehow the president found the energy to still board two flights for a trip to New York.
Trump was seen departing the White House on Friday afternoon. He traveled to show support for Republican NY Rep. Mike Lawler at Rockland Community College.
But his careful, stiff movement as he struggled to make it up the stairs of the presidential plane raised red flags online.
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Trump’s left hand had a tight grip on the railing while he held an umbrella over his head. He carefully put his foot on each step.
His body swayed as he made it up to the top, where he needed assistance. After making the long journey, the 79-year-old stopped as if he was out of breath.
He then awkwardly turned around and nodded his head twice, like he was telling the crowd, “Thank you,” or that he was okay.
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Trump then made his way to the plane door, where he met a sergeant wearing a US Air Force uniform.
He noticed the commander-in-chief, who has struggled in the past with basic tasks, fidgeting with the umbrella.
Trump seemed like he was going to dump the umbrella on the landing before handing it to the man who closed it for him.
But the umbrella handoff was not the moment viewers became fixated on. As the footage spread online, critics quickly zeroed in on Trump’s lower legs and stiff climb up the stairs.
The video had folks zooming in, dragging the president for his inability to close an umbrella and another troubling detail.
Others expressed shock over his swollen feet and his slow-moving ascent.
“Damn…those cankles about to get their own zip code!” joked one person. Another said, “Cankles? Those are Keg-kles… Barrel-kles… Water-Tank-by-the-Freeway-kles.”
Cankles? Those are Keg-kles… Barrel-kles… Water-Tank-by-the-Freeway-kles.#Trump #MAGATIME pic.twitter.com/2uwjcxQAIf
— I Identify as a Problem (@DuMoyel) May 21, 2026
Another joked in Trump’s signature social media format. “CLOMP CLOMP CLOMP CLOMP CLOMP.”
“He’s NEVER closed one before,” added another about Trump’s umbrella hand-off. “He usually just drops them as he walks in.”
One user addressed Trump’s intense focus as he made his ascent, noting, “He really has to concentrate to make it up the stairs and notice how he’s using the hand on the rail to haul himself forward.”
“A little pause there near the top and holding on to that railing for dear life,” noted one.
Trump’s plane landed at Morristown Airport in Morristown, New Jersey. He was transferred to Marine One to travel onward to Suffern, New York.
But each visual of his lower half causes a frenzy online, with people wondering if his health is declining.
The president was diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency last year, a vascular condition causing blood to pool in the lower legs and ankles.
Between the random catnaps during briefings and the droopiness of his face and his stiff movements around his right arm, no one knows what to believe.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and Cabinet members have attempted to shift the conversation, once blaming Trump’s bruised hands on shaking too many hands.
Still, he finds time to repeatedly mock others over their own physical stumbles and public appearances.
Last week, Trump slammed former President Joe Biden for what he struggled with during his term in office.
“He couldn’t walk without falling down the damn stairs,” Trump said.
He didn’t like watching Biden, who tripped and fell three times while walking up the stairs of Air Force One, in a viral video from March 2021.
But he refuses to make headlines in the same way.
“I’m very careful when I walk, by the way, because if I ever fall… the fake news … they’re going to have… that headline will go on for years,” said Trump.
Trump’s comments sounded nearly identical to remarks he made during another “Squawk Box” interview.
“We had a guy that wasn’t respected,” he claimed three weeks ago. “We had a country that was laughed at. He couldn’t walk a flight of stairs, forget about down, he couldn’t walk up a flight.”
Yet it seems only one person is having trouble getting up stairs these days.
Trump also said the “fake news” would drag him, whether he went to his son’s wedding or not.
Trump Jr. and Anderson reportedly already got married on Thursday in West Palm Beach, Florida, at the home of Kristina Anderson McPherson, Anderson’s twin sister, but they will have another ceremony in the Bahamas on a private Island. The president did not attend the ceremony in Florida either.