A video of President Donald Trump standing on the White House driveway has drawn a fresh round of public alarm about the health of the 80-year-old president, with a new account of the footage describing his head, neck and upper body pointed one way while his torso, knees and feet angled elsewhere.
In that account, Trump’s abdomen pushed forward and he shifted his weight as though turning his waist and hips caused him discomfort. The clip, recorded Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026, shows the president with his left knee angled sharply inward and his right leg arched out behind him. His left leg hung limp in the frame, and his right hand was caked in makeup.
The footage came from Trump aide Margo Martin. It captured the president after a luncheon with technology executives that he hosted in the East Room, a gathering billed as Super Intelligence. The executives then flanked him on the White House driveway for an unplanned press conference lasting 30 minutes, and there he announced an artificial intelligence agreement that was described as “morally binding.”
The video itself cannot resolve the alarm it set off. It establishes no injury, no diagnosis and no cause.
Online Reaction Splits Quickly
The response online was instant and unsparing. Users demanded that an actual physician weigh in. They argued over whether the stance signaled an injury or something neurological. Some floated the theory that a leg brace had finally become too obvious to hide. Others cracked jokes about his legs being put on backward that morning. None of it carried medical evidence.
Not everyone read the stance as significant. Several social media users argued that the positioning simply reflected a brief, awkward pause caught on camera. An older photograph from a Rose Garden event last year, taken from behind and showing his legs at a different angle, also resurfaced after the clip.
Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel addressed the viral stance footage on his show. “Even his posture is crooked. Everything about him,” Kimmel said.
As of October 5, the White House had not responded to requests for comment on the clip.
A Week of Scrutiny
Earlier the same day as the driveway video, the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington hosted the launch of America.gov, which Trump attended and where he signed an executive order tied to the government services platform. Mehmet Oz, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, appeared in Video from that event to reach toward the president as he lowered himself into a chair.
Viewers went hunting for bulges and outlines below the knees of Trump’s trousers after his slow walk down the stairs from Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews on Sept. 27. That sparked unverified claims he was wearing an exoskeleton or braces. Oswald Cobblepot, as played by Danny DeVito in the 1992 film “Batman Returns,” became one comparison drawn to his posture, alongside Vincent D’Onofrio’s Edgar the Bug in the 1997 film “Men in Black.”
An afternoon announcement the next day, on Monday, Sept. 28, concerned a new $15 billion steel plant going up in eastern Iowa, and the president appeared to struggle to stay awake at that Oval Office event of his own, slumped behind the Resolute Desk. Moments earlier he had dusted off his old nickname for his predecessor, “Sleepy Joe Biden.”
The scrutiny of his body continued the following week. On October 1, during Trump’s tour of the Peterbilt Motors Company in Denton, Texas, Martin posted behind-the-scenes clips, and viewers focused on what they said was a bulge in his pants, reviving claims that he wears a diaper. Neither the White House nor Trump’s medical team has ever confirmed use of adult incontinence products, and the White House has repeatedly insisted he is in good health.
What the Medical Record Says
Capt. Sean P. Barbabella, the physician to the president, said in July 2025 that mild swelling in his lower legs had been reported by Trump. Testing identified chronic venous insufficiency, a condition the memorandum described as common among people over 70. No evidence of deep vein thrombosis or arterial disease turned up in that update, which also reported no signs of heart failure, renal impairment or systemic illness.
Walter Reed National Military Medical Center was where Trump underwent his annual physical on May 26, 2026. Barbabella said in a memorandum released May 29 that the president remained in “excellent health,” with cardiac, pulmonary and neurological function all reported as strong. Motor strength, sensation, reflexes, gait and balance all came back normal in the examination.
Trump and the White House have consistently maintained that he is in perfect health, and the findings on file support that framing in broad terms, with one limitation: the exam that recorded a normal gait was conducted in May, four months before the driveway video.
A letter signed earlier this year by more than 30 doctors warned that the president is deteriorating, declared him unfit mentally and urged that he be removed from office as a matter of extreme urgency. Those doctors pointed to the more than 5,000 U.S. nuclear warheads that stand ready to launch on his order.
Questions Predate the Clip
Questions about how Trump moves go back well before this week. Former Major League Baseball pitcher Roger Clemens and his son Kacy Clemens joined him for a round at Trump National Golf Club in Virginia in August 2025, and the president appeared during it to haul his right leg behind him and move sluggishly.
Ben Meiselas of MeidasTouch reviewed footage of that round. “He’s dragging that right leg again, and he can’t walk in a straight line,” Meiselas said.
Trump is the oldest person ever inaugurated as president. Photographers regularly capture dark bruises on his hands and swelling in his ankles, and mental slip-ups and slurred words have dogged him as well.
