President Donald Trump has admitted his biggest fear during a rambling live interview.
The president phoned up Squawk Box on CNBC on Tuesday morning to offer updates to the nation about his failing peace negotiations with Iran. But he soon began ranting about a number of topics—including his own insecurities. The tangents were so wild that he granted extra time to the anxious interviewers, who were keen to get updates on the conflict.
“You can have some extra time. I know my people said 20 minutes, but you can have some extra time,” he told them.
Host Joe Kernen asked whether the Saudis were growing impatient with the pace of negotiations with Iran. This somehow prompted the 79-year-old to launch into an anecdote about his fear of stairs.
“Well, he’s another great guy,” he said, presumably talking about Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman.
“You know, he gave me the famous line that I use a little bit. He said, a year and a half ago, sir, you were a dead country. Now you’re the hottest country anywhere in the world. He said that to me, and it’s true,” Trump insisted, before turning his attentions to his predecessor, Joe Biden, and the alarming prospect of stairs.
“We were a dead country. We had a guy that wasn’t respected. We had a country that was laughed at. He couldn’t walk up a flight of stairs, forget about down. He couldn’t walk up a flight, but he was falling all over the place.”
Trump has often been seen gingerly exiting aircraft and clinging to the side rails as he descends the stairs. He finally admitted why he does this, telling the panel: “I have to be careful because if I do trip or fall, it’s got to be the biggest [story]. That’s why when I get out of those planes, I walk nice and slowly. I’m not looking to set any speed records, but we had an embarrassing country. We had a country that was going to fail.”
The White House has admitted that Trump suffers from a condition that leads to his hand bruising easily, but has never said the president has any mobility issues.
But his trepidation about stairs is obvious. During a surprise tour of Elvis Presley’s Graceland last month, Trump was recorded by an aide sizing up a small set of steps before carefully descending. This visible anxiety while descending stairs is more commonly seen when the president is getting off Air Force One or Marine One.
He is often seen clinging to the guard rail while laser-focused on each step he takes.
In March, Trump revealed that the “only thing” he “admired” about Barack Obama was his ability to make using stairs look so easy.
“The only thing I admired about Barack Hussein Obama—which was nothing actually. But the only thing is the way he was bopping down the stairs," he told supporters at a rally in Kentucky. “You talk about unpresidential. He’d bop—and I couldn’t believe that he made it without at least a noticeable major fall.”
Biden, 83, does not inspire the same respect. In fact, Trump has repeatedly mocked him for struggling with stairs. During a rambling speech in front of military leaders last September, Trump admitted that he needs to be extra careful whenever he uses them, to avoid comparisons with his predecessor.
