Donald Trump was mocked online after video showed him boarding his Qatari-gifted Air Force One after the United States' 4-1 World Cup loss to Belgium, with social media users reviving unverified 'diaper' claims and pointing to his slowed climb up the stairs and a seemingly limp left arm. The footage, tied to Trump's departure for a NATO summit in Ankara, has now become the latest ugly little internet pile-on around a president who had already injected himself into the tournament story.
Donald Trump and the World Cup Fallout
The episode follows Trump's intervention in Folarin Balogun's red-card case, after he urged FIFA president Gianni Infantino to review the punishment. According to reports, FIFA then made the striker eligible for the knockout tie against Belgium, and UEFA promptly accused the governing body of having 'crossed a red line.'
That is the background to why a routine departure video turned into a louder, messier online spectacle. Once the United States crashed out, viewers on X latched on to Trump's expression, his pace and, inevitably, the old gossip about whether he wears a diaper.
None of that was verified, and the speculation appears to rest on long-running claims from former Celebrity Apprentice worker Noel Casler that have never been independently established.
The Diaper Speculation Returns
The diaper chatter has followed Trump for years, usually flaring whenever a suit crease, a chair position or a badly timed camera angle gives social media fresh material. It is the kind of stuff that spreads fast because it is crude, easy to repeat and impossible to completely kill once it is out there.
In this latest round, users claimed the president seemed to struggle on the aircraft stairs and suggested his 'diaper is weighing him down,' a line that was repeated in several posts. Others focused on his left arm, describing it as 'dangling like a piece of rubber.'
Trump has also been the subject of repeated health scrutiny this year. According to reports in May that the White House said he was in excellent health, while also noting slight leg swelling and hand bruising.
That does not answer the internet's appetite for conspiracy, of course, but it does place the latest gossip in a broader pattern of obsessive public attention to his physical appearance.
Air Force One and the Timing
The timing is what gave the footage bite. According to reports, Trump had viewed the Qatari-gifted Boeing 747 in June, and another report said he was set to debut the aircraft on a July trip. So when he was later seen boarding the plane after the Belgium defeat, the symbolism was obvious enough for social media to do what social media does best, which is to overcook everything into a meme.
There is also the awkward fact that Trump had already made himself part of the football story before the match. In a related report said he called Infantino about Balogun's ban, then praised FIFA's reversal as a 'great injustice.'
So when Belgium knocked the US out, the reaction online was not just about sport. It was about hubris, interference and a president who had, once again, wandered into a room and changed the temperature.
Whether the diaper talk says anything meaningful about Trump is another matter. Probably not. But the video did what viral videos do best, it handed critics a new angle, and the internet, never one to miss a cheap shot, ran with it.
