In an interview with The Wall Street Journal's Michael Bender on Thursday, Trump, unprompted, raised the ramp walk, which had led some to speculate that he was in ill health. Here's the exchange:
Trump: But I also, if you think about it, I went to West Point over the weekend, made a very good speech, according to everybody. They said the speech was one of the best. The kids thought it was one of the best they'd ever heard. Stood up there for a long time saluting. Were you there?
Bender: No, but I watched. It looked like a really nice day.
Trump: Yeah. After the helicopters came over, the hats went up, the general said, Sir, Are you ready? I said, I'm ready. And he led me to a ramp that was long and steep and slippery. And I said, I got a problem because I wear, you know, the leather bottom shoes. I can show them to you if you like. Same pair. And you know what I mean, they're slippery. I like them better than the rubber because they don't catch. So they're better for this. But they're not good for ramps. I said, General, I got a problem here. That ramp is slippery....
So I'm going to go real easy. So I did. And then the last 10 feet I ran down. They always stop it just before I ran, they always stop it. So, I spent three hours between speeches and saluting people and they end up, all they talked about is ramp. ... If you would have seen this ramp, it was like an ice skating rink. So I'm the only one that can happen. But the church is an interesting thing. I mean, here I spent three hours on stage, the sun pouring in and I saluted 1,106 cadets, and that's not easy. Even the general said, That's amazing. Other presidents would never have been able to do it. Because usually they do the first 10. They do 10 honor rolls, and then they go home. I stayed there for hours. And what do I do? I get publicity about walking down a ramp. And does he have Parkinson's? I don't think so.
OK, a few things.
1) I am in no position to know whether the ramp was "like an ice staking rink." But I will note that The Washington Post's Phil Rucker wrote this about that: "Elements of Trump's explanation strained credulity. Trump's claim that the ramp had been 'very slippery' was inconsistent with the weather, which on Saturday in West Point, N.Y., was sunny and clear-skied. The grass plain on which the commencement took place was dry."
2) Having worn leather-bottomed dress shoes, I can attest to the fact that when you first buy them, they are very slippery. (You need to scuff the bottoms to make them less slippery.) But was Trump wearing a brand new pair of shoes for the West Point speech?
3) Trump did not run down the last 10 feet of the ramp. He marginally increased his pace in the last few feet. But I wouldn't describe it as running. And "they" didn't stop the footage just before Trump "ran." The whole video is widely available -- literally everywhere on the internet.
Is this sort of micro-analysis of the President of the United States walking down a ramp, well, a little much? Absolutely yes! But, the reason I am doing it is because Trump continues to tweet and talk about it!
And why is he? Because Trump is absolutely obsessed with his public image. He has spent a lifetime feeding the perception that he is the coolest, most appealing, best and toughest guy out there. (This is a man who would call the New York tabloids in the 1980s, pretending to be a young Trump company employee named John Barron, to talk up his own attractiveness and business dealings.) To that point, Trump tweeted this Friday morning in advance of a planned rally in Tulsa Saturday night:
"Any protesters, anarchists, agitators, looters or lowlifes who are going to Oklahoma please understand, you will not be treated like you have been in New York, Seattle, or Minneapolis. It will be a much different scene!"
Tough talk! (Of course, Trump himself will have no role in how protesters, if they do brave an indoor arena packed with people as Oklahoma hits a new high in coronavirus cases, are treated.)
It never made sense for Trump to react to the video of him walking down the ramp in the first place. Why give the story oxygen? And it makes even less sense to keep the story percolating almost a week after it happened.
So why did he do it? Put simply: Because he can't not. He simply is incapable of letting the perception that he might be frail or weak stand. He has to push back, even if, politically speaking, it's the absolute wrong thing to do.
Knowing Trump, my guess is that we haven't heard the last of the ramp defense. I wouldn't be at all surprised if Trump somehow slips a riff on the ramp -- and how the media treated his walk down it -- tomorrow night in Tulsa.
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Donald Trump can't stop talking about that West Point ramp - CNN
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