Donald Trump predicted that he will “one day” fall down stairs while also claiming that he was declared a better “physical specimen” than Barack Obama and George W. Bush during a meandering speech to Navy sailors Sunday.
The 79-year-old president began speaking at the U.S. Navy’s 250th anniversary celebration in Norfolk, Virginia roughly 45 minutes behind schedule, leaving active-duty servicemembers, who remain unpaid amid the government shutdown, standing in the sun.
Trump opened his speech by honoring Navy members for their service, but it didn’t take long for him to boast about his own achievements and lash out at his political opponents.
The president claimed that Rep. Ronny Jackson, the disgraced former White House physician who served under himself, Obama, 64, and Bush, 79, had proclaimed him as the “healthiest” of the three presidents.
“At a press conference, they asked [Jackson], ‘Who’s in the best shape? Who’s the healthiest? Who’s the strongest? Who’s the best physical specimen of the three?’ He said, ‘That’s easy: President Donald Trump,” Trump boasted to the crowd. “I said, ‘I love this guy.’”
Jackson is a retired Navy one-star admiral who was demoted in 2022 amid allegations of making inappropriate sexual comments and violating alcohol policies before being reinstated last month.
Newsweek reported last November that Jackson, now congressman for Texas, never publicly said Trump was healthier than Obama or any other president, after Trump made similar claims that month.
However, Jackson, 58, did give a glowing assessment on the president’s health during his first term in 2018, saying Trump has “incredible genes.”
Trump also took shots at his other predecessor, Joe Biden, 82, before slipping in a a surprisingly unvarnished acknowledgment of his own advancing age.
“We had a horrible, horrible president who had no clue what the hell was happening. The chances of him walking down those stairs successfully were not good,” he said. “And I have to be careful because one day I’m gonna probably fall.”
The commander-in-chief then revealed what he apparently tells himself while walking down stairs.
“I always say, ‘Walk down the steps nice and slowly.’ You ever notice? I don’t have to bop down the stairs. ‘Walk nice and slowly,’” he said proudly.
Trump made similar comments during his speech to top generals and admirals at the Marine Corps base in Quantico, Virginia last week.
The aging president was filmed in July stumbling on the stairs going up to Air Force One. He has also struggled to walk in a straight line on multiple occasions, fueling speculation about his health.
Trump, who sports a recurring bruise on his right hand, has been diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency, a condition common in seniors in which blood pools in the legs due to poor circulation.
In his address at the Naval Station Norfolk on Sunday, Trump also boasted about sending the National Guard into U.S. cities and gloated about renaming the Gulf of Mexico and the Department of Defense.
Blaming the shutdown on Democrats, he promised “across the board pay raises” for service members, drawing cheers from the crowd.
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