First lady Melania Trump’s social media team has posted a video that appears to artistically slow down her arrival with the president at Thursday’s Congressional Ball.
The video shows Donald Trump, 79, and Melania, 55, arm in arm, carefully descending a staircase in the grand foyer of the White House to the tune of “Hail to the Chief.”
But the FLOTUS-approved video appears to be slightly slowed down from other footage of the Trumps coming down the stairs on the night at a marginally faster pace.
Trump stops midway down the stairs to point at the invited crowd and raise his fist before returning to grip the handrail.
The leisurely paced video edit from the Office of the First Lady’s social media accounts does little to silence reports of the president’s lack of stamina and signs of fatigue.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
Trump reacted badly to a New York Times article that called out his dozing off in White House meetings and claimed that he was traveling less and making fewer appearances compared to his first term as president.
The report came amid an increasing number of articles from publications including The Washington Post and CNN scrutinizing signs of the president’s apparent deteriorating health—all of them following the lead of the Daily Beast, which has been reporting on the issue for months before others stopped ignoring it.
On Tuesday, Trump was still furious about the Times story, and posted a 488-word rant where the oldest person ever elected to the presidency rejected claims about his failing health and reduced workload.
“There has never been a President that has worked as hard as me! My hours are the longest, and my results are among the best,” Trump wrote, before complaining about having to do “long, thorough and very boring” medical tests.
Trump bragged that his personal doctors had given him “PERFECT Marks — Some have even said they have never seen such Strong Results.”
Dismissing claims he is “slowing up” or is “maybe not as sharp” as he was, or is in poor physical health, Trump insisted he “probably” works harder than he ever has before.
“I will know when I am ‘slowing up,’ but it’s not now!” Trump wrote.
The president also took his chance to once again blast the Times in the epic post, calling them “seditious, perhaps even treasonous” and “true enemies of the people” for publishing “FAKE reports in order to libel and demean THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.”
A spokesperson for The New York Times said Americans deserve in-depth reporting about the health of the leaders they elect.
“Mr. Trump welcomed our reporting on the age and fitness of his predecessors; we’re applying the same journalistic scrutiny to his vitality.”
“Our reporting is heavily sourced, based on interviews with people close to the president and with medical experts. We won’t be deterred by false and inflammatory language that distorts the role of a free press,” she said.
There has been some good health news this week for the president, who turns 80 in June next year.
After seven days of sporting a mystery bandage on his healing hand, Trump was spotted at the Congressional Ball going Band-Aid free.
However his problematic right hand continued to be slathered in heavy makeup to conceal persistent bruising. It remains mismatched to Trump’s actual skin tone.
The Band-Aid removal followed the Daily Beast’s Farrah Tomazin grilling White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt about the president’s weeklong use bandages during a media briefing on Thursday.
“As for the bandages on the hand, we’ve also given you an explanation for that in the past,” Leavitt said. “The president is literally constantly shaking hands. The Oval Office is like Grand Central Terminal. He is meeting with more people than any of you even know about on a daily basis.”
