Trump Commemorates 8 Year Anniversary of ‘Famous Trip’ Down ‘Golden Escalator’

AP Photo/Richard Drew

Former President Donald Trump commemorated the 8th anniversary of his descent down the Trump Tower escalator and subsequent campaign launch on Friday.

In a Truth Social post on Friday — eight years after his June 16, 2015 presidential campaign launch — Trump wrote:

TODAY IS THE EIGHT YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THE FAMOUS “TRIP” (to put it mildly!) DOWN THE “GOLDEN ESCALATOR” IN TRUMP TOWER WITH THE THEN FUTURE FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES, MELANIA. WHAT AN INCREDIBLE JOURNEY IT HAS BEEN, & WHAT A TREMENDOUS SUCCESS OUR GREAT COUNTRY HAD, WITH NO INFLATION, THE GREATEST ECONOMY & STRONGEST (“THE WALL”) BORDER EVER, THE BIGGEST TAX & REGULATION CUTS, THE BEST EMPLOYMENT NUMBERS IN AMERICAN HISTORY, THE REBUILDING OF OUR MILITARY & SPACE FORCE, & MUCH MORE. WOW!

Trump’s slow descent down the escalator to Neil Young’s Rockin’ In The Free World, as a small group of people allegedly paid to be there cheered him, became one of the most iconic moments of his 2016 presidential campaign, and was even parodied by The Simpsons. Politico called the moment “The Escalator Ride That Changed America.”

While Trump has looked back on the moment fondly, however, the escalator descent was ridiculed by many at the time and — like Ron DeSantis’ disastrous and widely-mocked 2024 campaign launch on Twitter Spaces in May — Trump’s escalator moment was seen by some as a joke and as an omen for the rest of his campaign.

“Trump is really known to the masses through Apprentice and Celebrity Apprentice, and that over-the-top, showy moment coming down the escalator was straight from a scene from The Apprentice,” said Mediaite Editor at Large Colby Hall on NewsNation last year, noting that while “everyone dismissed it as a joke” and “as an absurd show,” Trump went on to become the Republican nominee and president of the United States.

Immediately after the escalator ride, Trump also delivered what became one of his most famous speeches to date.

“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending the best … they’re sending people that have lots of problems and they’re bringing those problems,” he said. “They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime. They’re rapists and some, I assume, are good people.”

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