Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. Credit / Getty Images
Online sleuths believe they’ve deduced the reason behind Donald Trump’s strange walk as he went to his potentially historic summit with Vladimir Putin in Alaska last week.
Friday, August 15, saw two of the world’s most powerful men convene for talks regarding a ceasefire over Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Trump, who has long proclaimed to be a master negotiator, said ahead of the meeting that he would be tabling an offer “too good” to refuse.
At the time of writing, no agreement has been reached (there is no ceasefire), though Trump – who previously threatened “very severe consequences” if the summit didn’t reach a favorable conclusion – said great progress between he and Putin had been made.
Perhaps unsurprisingly a number of aspects relating to the meeting made headlines over the weekend, including Trump performing his “yank” handshake while he greeted Putin, and viewers spotting a B-2 stealth bomber flying overhead before the meeting began.
And yet arguably what generated the most buzz (at least in the build-up to the summit) was Trump’s rather bizarre manner of walking when he disembarked his aircraft and took to a red carpet that would lead him to the meeting place.
Online users simply couldn’t get over the 79-year-old POTUS’s apparent inability to just walk in a straight line, prompting speculation as to why he seemed to be veering left and right.
https://x.com/JohnEkdahl/status/1956509853410582785?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1956509853410582785%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Flatepress.com%2F2025%2F08%2F18%2Fpeople-suggest-haunting-reason-trump-was-walking-in-zig-zags-for-putin-meeting%2F
“Can any doctors tell me. Why is Trump struggling to walk in a straight line?” one user wrote on X.
Naturally there were those who stated their belief that the weird walk was down to rumored health issues, but there were other, darker theories abroad.
One included the obvious threat of assassination, only compounded by the incident that saw Trump shot in the ear while on the campaign trail last year.
One X user penned: “I’m only half joking here, but if I was almost assassinated twice, I’d probably walk in zig-zags for the rest of my life.”
Another added: “Thought the same thing. Almost like a reflex at this point.“
A third pondered: “Zig-zag to avoid bullets hitting? Or out of nervousness?”
Conspiracy theories relating to Trump and Putin’s big meeting have been all the rage over the weekend. Some online users were even of the opinion that Putin had sent a body double to the summit in Alaska while the president himself stayed well away.
Speaking to the Daily Star, body language expert Inbaal Honigman played this idea down, stating: “As we observe Vladimir Putin march alongside Donald Trump, the Russian president’s famed ‘gunslinger gait’ is as evident as ever.”
What did you make of President Trump’s walk? Let us know in the comments box.