Trump, 80, Called Out for Strange Hand Twitch While Climbing Air Force One Stairs

Donald Trump is facing fresh speculation about his health after he was recorded making a sudden jerking motion with his hand as he climbed stairs onto Air Force One.

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After a day of talks with world leaders at the NATO summit in Turkey, the 80-year-old president’s eye-catching twitch came as he boarded Air Force One for his flight back to the U.S. on Wednesday.

Just before reaching the plane, his left hand, which had hung motionless at his side, jerked abruptly backward.

The sudden twitching motion quickly caught people’s attention on social media, sparking a wave of questions about the commander-in-chief’s physical state.

“What happened here?” the progressive news network MeidasTouch wrote on X, alongside a zoomed-in, slowed-down clip of Trump’s hand twitch.

One X user replied, “Hmm…usually the right arm/hand that has issues, but that was definitely some sort of involuntary twitch of the left arm.”

“Looks to me like he’s either wearing shinguards, or those are braces, and one buckled out a bit for a step,” another X user wrote, while a third commented, “The hand flip backward was incredibly weird. And looked involuntary.”

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In a reference to Trump’s mental gaffe from earlier in the day, when he mixed up the Islamic Republic of Iran with the “Islamic Republic of Japan,” one X user quipped, “Is that the Islamic Republic of Japan he is waving to?”

When reached for comment, the White House sent the Daily Beast a recycled statement from Trump’s communications director Steven Cheung: “You must be f—ing blind or stupid, because that was a perfect walk.”

Trump spent years mocking Joe Biden over his physical and cognitive decline while in office, but has gone on to make some even more egregious gaffes since returning to the White House as the oldest man ever inaugurated as president.

While climbing the steps to Air Force One in June last year, Trump stumbled and briefly grimaced before carrying on.

His shaky stair walks on Air Force One have become a recurring theme of his presidency, and he routinely mentions his fear of falling, telling attendees at his Rose Garden Club dinner in May, “I’m very careful when I walk.”

Trump’s appearance at the NATO summit this week thrust concerns about his health back into the spotlight, after he appeared with a swollen right hand and his left hand covered in concealer, and his swollen ankles were seen bulging out of his shoes.