ON Friday, a triumphant President Donald Trump boarded Air Force One alongside wife Melania to visit the Los Angeles fires victims.
Eagle-eyed viewers wondered why Trump climbed far more stairs to board the plane than his predecessor, Joe Biden– and the answer may explain why the 82-year-old didn’t run for a second term.
In his first week of the presidency, Trump has already cracked down on illegal immigration, started a war against DEI, and, on Friday, visited Hurricane Helene victims in North Carolina.
Standing in the storm-torn grounds of rural Swannanoa, Trump criticized the beauracracy of the Federal Emergency Management Agency that he said slowed down disaster relief.
The president explained why he believes state governments should handle recovery efforts as he announced an executive order that lifts regulations so roads could be rebuilt without permits.
After his speech, Trump went to Air Force One and walked up the steps with Melania, who had also visited the storm victims.
The grand 18-foot staircase Trump climbed struck viewers as it was far different from President Biden’s squat flight of steps.
That’s because, following an embarrassing series of falls, Biden started using a shorter staircase that led directly to the belly of the plane.
The change became noticeable around August 2023 – two months after Biden took a shockingly dramatic tumble over a sandbag at a US Air Force Academy graduation, NPR reported.
The devastating descent saw Biden fully lying on the ground until two Secret Servicemen swiftly ran to his side to try and save his bruised ego.
In March 2021, soon after winning the election, Biden fell twice while scaling the Air Force One steps, leaving recent voters wondering whether they made the right decision.
And the former president took two tumbles yet again in February, despite using the short stairs to avoid tripping.
Biden’s constant blunders sparked a nationwide conversation on his age, and whether he had what it takes to serve four more years as president.
All of that came to a head when he gave an embarrassing debate performance against Trump that saw him sputtering and looking like a deer in headlights.
After watching Trump easily ascend the Air Force One steps, ecstatic fans of the MAGA leader declared, “America is back.”
“He didn’t trip on the stairs like the previous president would have,” said one supporter on X.
TikTok, gender debate & JFK truth – the rest of Trump’s to-do list
BY Ellie Doughty, Foreign News Reporter
JFK ASSASSINATION
Trump promised to uncover a slew of classified documents on the assassinations of President John F Kennedy, Senator Robert Kennedy and Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King.
During his first term Trump did release some documents related to the fatal shooting of JFK in Dallas, Texas, 1963.
King and Robert Kennedy were both assassinated in 1968.
“In the coming days, we are going to make public remaining records related to the assassinations of President John F Kennedy, his brother Robert Kennedy, as well as Dr Martin Luther King Jr and other topics of great public interest,” he said the day before his Inauguration.
Trump has not specified what kind of documents he hopes to release, but the JFK assassination in particular has been a long-term source of debate in the US.
A widespread conspiracy theory has suggested the involvement of the federal government or CIA in orchestrating and covering up his death.
TIKTOK BAN
Trump has hit repeatedly hit out at the plans to ban TikTok in the US – a wildly popular social media app with some 170million American users.
After national security concerns tied to its Chinese ownership, the app was briefly shut down across the country.
But mere hours after Trump promised to reinstate it after taking office, American users were able to get back online.
The app “welcomed back” American yesterday, lauding Trump as the reason for its return even before his official return to the Oval Office.
He then extended a 90-day period to keep it running.
GENDER DEBATE
Trump has previously vowed to reinstate a ban on transgender military service – something he brought in during his first term which Biden later axed.
He said at a rally in December: “With the stroke of my pen, on day one, we’re going to stop the transgender lunacy.”
He is also expected to ban transgender women from competing in women’s sports, saying: “And I will sign executive orders to end child sexual mutilation, get transgender out of the military and out of our elementary schools and middle schools and high school.
“And we will keep men out of women’s sports. And that will likewise be done on Day One.”
CLIMATE CRUNCH
Trump has also promised to look at cost of living efforts and visit Los Angeles in the wake of recent devastating wildfires.
And he is expected to overturn President Biden’s climate policies – including on the regulation of pollution or green job efforts.
It could also stretch to a ban on new wind projects or electric vehicle mandates.
He has already pulled out of the Paris Climate Agreement – just as he did in 2017, before Biden rejoined in 2021.
Another person wrote, “We are so back, baby.”
Others praised Melania for joining Trump on his travels and said she was looking very presidential in her army green coat and black boots.
“And Melania was with him! I’m so proud to be an American,” said another MAGA fan.
“So nice to have a president that can walk up stairs,” wrote a different user.
“It’s the little things.”
Trump’s first steps come as some GOP representatives have called on him to release all of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein’s case files.
