Trump staffers sought refuge on second floor of White House as former president never climbed stairs
Kellyanne Conway and Stephen Miller worked in the upstairs section of the West Wing
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Trump administration staffers sought refuge on the second floor of White House as the former president never climbed stairs, a new book claims.
The former president’s aides, such as Kellyanne Conway and Stephen Miller, chose to work out of a second-floor office to ensure separation from their boss, according to Michael Wolff.
Wolff writes in the forthcoming Landslide: The Final Days of the Trump Presidency that it “meant a degree of exclusion but also protection” as “Trump would never climb the stairs (and, by the end of his term, he never had)”.
An excerpt of Wolff’s book was published in New York Magazine on Monday.
It is not the first time that the White House stairs have been discussed as an issue for the one-term president.
In January 2017 The Washington Post predicted that it was unlikely Mr Trump would ever go to that area of the executive mansion.
“Though Conway took over the workspace previously occupied by Valerie Jarrett, who had been Obama’s closest adviser, the confidant dismissively predicted that Trump would rarely climb a flight of stairs,” wrote the newspaper.
Mr Trump appeared to struggle walking down a ramp at New York’s West Point Military Academy in June 2020, which he repeatedly defended himself over.
”I had an instance where on a slippery, slippery ramp, a piece of steel, very steep and very long railings...and it was pouring at West Point,” he told Sean Hannity on Fox News.
“The last thing I want to do is go down because when Gerald Ford went down and it was not good.”
And in 2017, Mr Trump grabbed then UK prime minister Theresa May’s hand as they walked down stairs at the White House.
Despite suggestions that Mr Trump was afraid of stairs, Ms May told reporters she believed he was “actually being a gentleman”.
Wolff’s book Landslide will be published by Henry Holt & Co on 27 July.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments