Top Dem Seizes On Brutal Trump Mockery Over Stumble Up Air Force One Stairs
House Democratic Steering Committee Co-Chair Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) seized on a brutal viral meme mocking President Donald Trump to feign concern about the cruelty of lampooning his stumble on the steps to Air Force One and the nickname that has been getting under his skin.
Trump gaggled with reporters on the tarmac at Morristown Municipal Airport before boarding Air Force One en route to Camp David on Sunday. But his climb up the stairs was interrupted by a stumble that was reminiscent of similar events that became intense media fodder during then-President Joe Biden’s term in office.
Critics of Trump pounced on the fall with a blizzard of mockery that included a meme modeled after a popular fast food restaurant’s loge and the slogan “TACO Fell.”
That meme is a combination of Trump’s stumble and another viral phenomenon — the derisive Wall Street acronym TACO — “Trump Always Chickens Out” — to describe a “TACO trade” strategy to outsmart Trump’s chaotic market-roiling tariff policies.
Swalwell then took to X/Twitter to urge followers not to engage in such cruelty, writing “This meme is everywhere. Let’s be kinder to each other. Making fun of an almost-80-year-old falling on the stairs has no place in our politics.”
Not everyone got the joke. One user named “Always thinking” lashed out at Swalwell as if his suggestion were sincere, writing:
He doesn’t deserve kindness and your lame attempt to shame us is as fucked up as he is.
I’m truly disappointed in you. Be happy you don’t represent me. I’d never vote for you again.
But another user got the joke, and seemed to challenge Swalwell to fisticuffs or the like over it.
“Swalwell let’s me and you meet and discuss your post. See I’m not a 80 year old man. I hit back, so come on tough guy let’s have a face to face conversation,” he wrote, to which Swalwell replied “Ok meet me tough guy.”
Sincere or not, Swalwell’s admonition racked up tens of thousands of likes, replies, and reposts.
Watch above via C-SPAN.
