Donald Trump looked a little worse for wear arriving in Switzerland for what promises to be a highly tense appearance at this year’s World Economic Forum.
Cameras at the airstrip Wednesday morning captured the visibly tired, 79-year-old president disembarking before very slowly descending the stairs onto the tarmac.
He then turned and spoke briefly with reporters, his words all but lost amid the hum of the jet’s engines before setting off toward a nearby helicopter for the final leg of his journey.
Further footage of him subsequently walking up a red carpet at Davos, posted to X by White House Communications Adviser Margo Martin, shows the president breathing heavily and struggling to tread in a straight line.
Trump’s arrival at the summit had been delayed after Air Force One was forced to make an abrupt return to Washington, D.C. last night following an electrical issue on board.
His second departure, just after midnight, is thought to have added a further three hours to his journey.
It also follows after he attended a college football game Monday night, which saw him get home well past 2 a.m., and after he held a 104-minute White House press briefing Tuesday.
The president’s appearance at the summit comes amid a brewing trade war with European allies over his threats to annex Greenland, an autonomous territory controlled by NATO ally Denmark, in what critics describe as an assault on the rules-based international order.
It is not, however, the first time Trump has embarked on government business with an apparent lack of beauty sleep.
The almost-octogenarian MAGA leader has repeatedly dozed off during high-profile meetings at the White House over the past several weeks.
Those gaffes, coupled with growing memory lapses, verbal slips, confusion and bouts of aggression, have in turn fueled fears Trump may be suffering from the early stages of dementia.
Over the past week, the president has also offered increasingly bizarre justifications for his frenzied push to seize control of Greenland. His shocking admission that the move is linked to a personal gripe over being snubbed for last year’s Nobel Peace Prize has further raised alarm both at home and abroad, with some fearing that at 79 years old, he may simply no longer be up to the job.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment on this story. The president has previously described his cognitive and physical health as “perfect.”
