Donald Trump has fueled new speculation about his health after an awkward descent on Air Force One’s stairs.
A video of the 79-year-old president exiting the plane at Palm Beach International Airport on Saturday morning, posted by MAGA influencer Paul Villarreal, has drawn attention online for Trump’s odd hand movement and slow, careful descent.
In the video, Trump appears at the aircraft door and slaps his right leg three times with his right hand before heading down the stairs. He cautiously navigates the steps while gripping tightly onto the railing, taking about 18 seconds to reach the bottom of the short staircase.
President Trump exited Air Force One tonight in West Palm Beach. He is headed to Mar-a-Lago.
. pic.twitter.com/Z4vBY8qobw— Paul Villarreal (AKA Vince Manfeld) (@AureliusStoic1) December 20, 2025
He then plops into “The Beast,” the heavily armored presidential car, where he is seen drinking what appears to be a Diet Coke. Trump is spending Christmas at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
Critics online were quick to note the president’s apparent frailty and peculiar leg-slapping.
“Tapping that leg to make sure it works going down,” one X user commented.
Another wrote, “I wish he concentrated on the economy like he concentrated on going down those stairs.”
One person hypothesized about his hand motions, “It is not his leg he is touching, but he is trying to get life back into his hand.”
The elderly president’s supporters defended him, however, with many pointing out that Trump had just wrapped up a long day, including a rally in Rocky Mount, North Carolina.
Trump—who was filmed stumbling on Air Force One’s stairs during a visit to New Jersey in June this year—has frequently spoken about being “very careful” about walking down stairs to avoid the perils of his predecessor, Joe Biden.
“I’m very careful. You know, when I walk downstairs—like I’m on stairs like these stairs—I walk very slowly,“ Trump said while addressing the nation’s top generals in September.
A few days later, he brought up the subject again while taking shots at Biden during a speech to Navy sailors.
“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.’”
Questions around Trump’s health have dogged him in his second term, particularly after he let slip that he had undergone an MRI scan in October.
The White House eventually said it was a “preventative” look at his heart and abdomen, a claim met with skepticism from medical experts who stressed that there was “nothing standard” about the scan.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
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