PoliticsDonald Trump Addresses Why He Tightly Grips Stair Railings Amid Health Concerns: 'If I Do Trip, It’s Going to Be the Biggest Story'
Donald Trump's health has been a cause of worry in recent years.
April 21 2026, Published 2:11 p.m. ET
Donald Trump confessed he's afraid of falling down the stairs amid ongoing concerns for his health.
On the Tuesday, April 21, edition of CNBC's Squawk Box, the president, 79, addressed why he often tightly holds onto stair railings.
Donald Trump Revealed Why He's Afraid of Falling
Donald Trump revealed why he tightly grips on to stair railings amid concerns for his health.
Trump phoned in to the show and spoke to host Joe Kernen about former POTUS Joe Biden and why walking down steps is a significant act for a political leader.
“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," the businessman ranted.
Donald Trump is often spotted anxiously walking up and down stairs.
"I have to be careful because if I do trip or fall, it’s going 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," Trump added.
The politician has been caught tripping more than once as he went up the stairs of his Air Force One plane.
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'I walk nice and slowly,' the president said in a recent interview.
Last month during his trip to Elvis Presley's Graceland, he was spotted looking nervously at a set of steps before descending down them.
In March, Trump told the audience at a Kentucky rally the “only thing” he liked about ex-president Barack Obama was his ability to making walking down stairs look effortless.
Donald Trump looked like he needed help with the stairs during Easter at the White House earlier this month.
“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 said to the crowd. “You talk about unpresidential. He’d bop — and I couldn’t believe that he made it without at least a noticeable major fall.”
Chatter about Trump's health has circulated amongst the public as he often is seen at events with bruises on his hands and makeup or bandages covering them.
The POTUS Often Falls Asleep During Cabinet Meetings
Donald Trump was diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency.
He also was previously seen dozing off during government meetings and has been spotted with swollen ankles.
Trump's former White House attorney Ty Cobb recently gave his two cents on the billionaire's mental state, telling MS NOW host Ari Melber on April 16 that Trump is "lost."
"We see him falling asleep in Cabinet meetings in the mornings and in the afternoon. That’s a classic symptom of dementia,” he said, adding he's displaying "great deterioration" and "accelerated" mental decline.
