President Donald Trump left Joint Base Andrews on a rainy Sunday in Maryland to go on a long-awaited diplomatic mission to the Middle East. The main goal of the trip was to finalize a key peace deal between Israel and Hamas. However, a brief tussle with his umbrella that rapidly went viral on social media took away from his departure.
As the 79-year-old President got out of his limousine and walked up the boarding ramp, he had an embarrassing moment right before getting on Air Force One. People saw the President having trouble folding the umbrella so it would fit through the small door of the plane. After a brief, noticeable stumble, an aide immediately rushed in to help with the umbrella that wasn’t cooperating, letting the President get on the plane. As soon as the video became viral, people on the internet started calling it a “umbrella fail.”
This new viral video is part of a pattern that has been going on since the President took office. Records show that the President has had trouble using umbrellas in public before. For example, on a wet afternoon in October 2018, he forgot to close his umbrella before getting on Air Force One, allowing it to bounce on the tarmac. In April 2025, he was recorded trying to carry a fully open umbrella through the tiny entrance of an airplane before passing it off to a staff member as he left for his Mar-a-Lago home.
The Important Middle East Mission
The President’s travel comes at a key time for diplomacy, as it focuses on putting into action a full peace deal between Hamas and Israel that the U.S. helped to reach.
The main parts of the peace deal and the trip with multiple stops are:
First Stop: Israel
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, said that Israel is ready to take in the 48 Israeli hostages from Hamas as part of the arrangement that was reached.
President Trump is set to speak to the Israeli parliament when the prisoners are freed.
Next Stop: Egypt
After that, the President will head to Egypt for a big Middle East peace summit. The goal of the summit is to strengthen the truce and talk about how Gaza will be governed and rebuilt in the future.
As part of the larger peace plan, Israel has made big promises, such freeing 250 convicts and 1,700 Palestinians who are being held without charge in exchange for the Israeli hostages.
Before getting on Air Force One, President Trump told reporters that he was very sure the ceasefire would hold. “I have a lot of verbal promises, promises that aren’t written down, but they were made to me, and I believe they are going to be kept very strongly,” he said. He said, “The U.S.A. wants to help China, not hurt it!!!” to sum up how serious and successful the deal was.