President Donald Trump was caught on video looking like he stumbles while boarding Air Force One on Sunday, en route to Camp David.
The moment, captured by press photographers, quickly drew online attention—not just for the physical misstep, but because it occurred shortly after Trump fielded questions about the growing unrest in Los Angeles related to immigration enforcement.
Before takeoff, Trump stopped in Hagerstown, Maryland, where he addressed reporters about whether he would consider invoking the Insurrection Act in response to the protests erupting in California over ICE raids.
“It depends on whether or not there’s an insurrection,” Trump said when asked directly about the possibility. Pressed further on whether he believed the current unrest qualifies as such, Trump replied, “No, no, but you have violent people. And we’re not going to let them get away with it.”
BREAKING: President Trump appears to stumble while boarding Air Force One. pic.twitter.com/YRuBzFKDOF
— Resist Times (@resistupdates) June 8, 2025
The president was then asked whether he might deploy troops even without invoking the Insurrection Act. His answer left little ambiguity: “We’re going to have troops everywhere. We’re not going to let this happen to our country. We’re not going to let our country be torn apart like it was under Biden.”
Shortly after those comments, Trump approached the stairs of Air Force One alongside Rubio and appeared to trip slightly during his ascent. Both men recovered quickly, but the slip drew immediate attention online, in part due to Trump’s history of mocking his political opponents—including President Joe Biden—for similar incidents.
Critics and social media commentators wasted no time highlighting the stumble. Political satirist RC Huffman quipped, “I’m surprised he hasn’t replaced those stairs with a portable escalator of some kind.” Progressive attorney Ron Filipkowski took a harsher jab, tweeting, “Time to get Old Man Trump fitted for a wheelchair.”
Jason DeSanto, a law lecturer at Northwestern, offered a succinct barb: “More beta energy.” Others, like journalist Aaron Rupar, drew attention to the double standard, noting how conservative media previously sensationalized Biden’s own stumbles. “When Joe Biden did stuff like this, Fox would play the clips over and over like it was as significant as the moon landing,” he wrote.
Trump himself has long used Biden’s physical stumbles as a political weapon. In 2023, Trump ridiculed Biden for tripping over a sandbag at the Air Force Academy graduation, calling it “not inspiring” for the cadets and referencing his own widely scrutinized careful descent down a ramp at West Point in 2020. At the time, Trump insisted the ramp was “like an ice-skating rink,” defending his slow, deliberate steps.
Following Biden’s withdrawal from the 2024 presidential race, questions about his physical condition and mental acuity intensified.
Reports surfaced that some aides had even discussed using a wheelchair for Biden had he secured a second term, further fueling speculation about his health.
While Sunday’s stumble may have been brief and inconsequential in practical terms, it reignited the political debate over age, fitness, and leadership optics—especially for a president who has openly ridiculed others for far less.