Donald Discovers the High-Security Stairlift, or: “The Toy Set for Small Dictators”

There are days when history doesn’t begin with a bang but with a step – more precisely, with thirteen small ones. On Sunday, Donald Trump boarded Air Force One in Palm Beach not via the usual presidential monumental staircase but through a portable mini version that looked as if it had been taken from a toy set for small dictators. The scene looked as if the empire had decided to adjust the symbolic height of power to the condition of its main actor. Background: a “suspicious item” had been discovered near the airport – presumably a hunting stand, but who can still tell the difference in Trump’s America: hunters, the hunted, and those who consider themselves the chosen. The Secret Service statement sounded like something from a user manual for paranoia: they had identified “suspicious objects.” That can mean anything these days – from a drone to a Democratic voter with binoculars.

Trump, 79, reacted to the discovery as one would expect from a man who has lived for years under the constant threat of being caught by reality: he lowered himself. Literally. No grand steps, no heroic lifting of the knees – just a timid little staircase that looked as if it had been imported directly from Mar-a-Lago, right next to the buffet with the “Patriot Shrimp.” A White House spokesman explained the move with “increased security measures.” The truth is more prosaic: nobody wanted to risk the president once again pausing halfway up, wondering whether he was ascending to heaven or descending into the campaign.

Meanwhile, the FBI is investigating in all directions – probably also the wrong ones. The suspected hunting stand was installed in a tree “with a direct line of sight to the airport.” The sentence could serve as a cipher for the entire Trump era: something rustic, dangerous, with a perfect view of the runway of power. Secret Service Chief Anthony Guglielmi assured in a statement that there had been “no impact to any movements.” Movements! What a wonderful euphemism for the moment when the most powerful person in the world avoids a staircase the way he avoids a tax return. “No individuals were involved or present,” it continued. That is probably the most honest sentence ever to come out of that agency: no one was involved. No one was present. Only a president and his fear of height – physical, political, moral.

Trump’s son Eric praised the Secret Service “for its excellent work.” That’s roughly like thanking a firefighter for putting out the fire you started yourself. The scene in Palm Beach is more than an anecdote. It is the symbol of a power that has become its own caricature: a man ducking from shadows he cast himself, thinking in security levels and living in conspiracy floors. A president afraid of a hunting stand but wielding rhetorical flamethrowers every day.

Donald Trump boarded Air Force One using the small stairs – due to “increased security measures,” after the Secret Service discovered a suspected hunting stand with a clear line of sight to the aircraft.

Perhaps the “suspicious item” was actually harmless – a wooden structure, a coincidence. But the real risk wasn’t in the tree at all; it wore a red tie and the illusion of being invincible. Thus Palm Beach became a surreal little cabinet piece: while the sun rose over the golf course, the president climbed upward – slowly, cautiously, on a stairway smaller than his ego. And when he reached the top, he didn’t look into the sky but into the reflection of his own fear. America has witnessed another ascent. Only this time, it didn’t lead into history but into psychology.