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Everyone noticed the lack of socks.

When President JOE BIDEN stepped off Marine One on a recent Sunday morning at Dover Air Force Base, he had just wrapped up a Delaware beach weekend. With his bare feet tucked inside his sneakers, he walked slowly across the tarmac to board Air Force One, which was headed to London for the start of a four-day European swing.

The informality of the president’s wardrobe distracted from something else — something reporters who travel with him have been noticing for some time. Biden boarded using the shorter set of retractable stairs that fold into the belly of the plane. The routine began a few months ago, the president increasingly avoiding the grander, more traditional doorway near the front of the aircraft on the main passenger level, higher above the tarmac.

The new routine looks to be another subtle accommodation to the president’s age. It is hiding in plain sight, although the White House won’t concede that interpretation. Three weeks ago when the president traveled to New York, again using the lower stairs to board, Bloomberg’s JUSTIN SINK pressed press secretary KARINE JEAN-PIERRE about it during her in-flight gaggle. Was Biden having “mobility problems,” Sink asked, or was it “to address — you know, he’s had a couple incidents falling on the stairs getting up and you guys just decided that it would be better for him?”

“I don’t have any decision process to walk through,” Jean-Pierre replied. “I’m sure there’s a protocol that’s used for the – for Air Force One. I just don’t have one.”

Traditionally, presidents have used the lower stairs when heavy rain or wind makes the taller steps unusable or in rare cases — like, famously, during a diplomatic spat after President BARACK OBAMA landed in China in 2016 — when a portable set of stairs is not available to place next to the main door.

Last week, Biden used the small steps to board Air Force One for every flight on his European trip: to London, Vilnius, Helsinki and back to Washington. None of those arrivals or departures — all of which are public and witnessed by the traveling press pool — were marked by inclement weather. He used the large stairs to descend from the plane upon arrival in London, Vilnius and Helsinki, when his hosts arranged more formal greeting ceremonies, but not to climb back aboard. And the overseas trip came on the heels of several recent domestic ones where Biden predominantly used the lower stairs on visits to and from Rocky Mount, N.C., Chicago, San Francisco and Philadelphia.

“There are a series of factors that go into the logistical decision-making on this, including weather, what kind of airport we’re landing at and whether there is a formal greeting planned for the tarmac where we expect that press will want an official photo at the bottom of the tall stairs,” a White House official said. “There’s not one hard and fast rule — it is a decision made on a variety of factors in a wide range of settings and circumstances.”

While many Biden advisers we contacted would not comment publicly on the change, two privately acknowledged an intentional shift to steer the 80-year-old president to the lower stairs more often to make his travel easier and limit the possibility for missteps. Why climb 26 sometimes wobbly steps at Joint Base Andrews, raised off the back of a pick-up truck that drives up beside Air Force One, when you have the option of stepping up or down just 14? Especially when few outside the press corps are likely to even notice.

The age factor is arguably the president’s biggest political problem as he embarks on a reelection campaign. Biden has addressed the issue head-on, with the occasional levity on the stump and, in interviews, by emphasizing the “wisdom” gained over his years in politics. But Democrats concede that there is no great way to paper over it.

“Satchel Paige famously said about age: ‘It’s mind over matter — if you don’t mind, it don’t matter.’ But this does matter to voters,” said RICK RIDDER, a longtime Democratic strategist in the West with experience on several presidential campaigns. “And Biden’s physical fragility complicates his effort to convince voters that reelecting him is a vote for stability. Because it’s hard for anyone to embody stability at 80 years old.”

That’s largely why aides are also trying to limit situations where any signs of physical frailty might be on heightened display — and to ease the burdens of travel where possible. For instance, last week’s leaders’ dinner at the NATO summit was the third such gathering Biden either skipped or left early in the past year.

Ultimately, the White House wants to keep the focus on the president’s record of historic legislative accomplishments, a surprisingly resilient economy and a foreign policy that, even Republicans concede, has restored America’s alliances.

Read the full version of this story here.

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Which president loved collecting stamps and amassed more than one million throughout his life?

(Answer at bottom.)

35 MILLION VIEWS AND COUNTING: The Biden campaign’s video featuring MARJORIE TAYLOR-GREENE delivering what she saw as a warning about the president’s agenda has more than 35 million views on Twitter in just under 24 hours online. Greene’s crisp summation of Biden’s accomplishments and claim that he “is actually finishing what FDR started, that LBJ expanded on” required minimal editing by the president’s campaign aides. But as historian KEVIN KRUSE noted in a Substack post, the line Biden wants to draw from FDR and LBJ to his own administration is not necessarily a straight one. “There are continuities,” he wrote. “But there are also key differences.”

JUNK FEES, PART ONE MILLION: Biden met with the White House Competition Council on Wednesday to cement the launch of several initiatives designed to protect consumers — an increasingly obsessive focus of this administration. Agriculture Secretary TOM VILSACK previewed his department’s pro-competition agenda, aimed at preventing grocery store consolidation, lowering costs for consumers and ensuring farmers are fairly compensated. The White House also announced plans to partner with Zillow, Apartments.com and AffordableHousing.com to ensure consumers have access to upfront costs and avoid hidden “junk fees,” our KATY O’DONNELL reports for Pro subscribers.

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: This piece by the Washington Post’s GLENN KESLER about how Sen. TOMMY TUBERVILLE (R-Ala.) hasn’t donated any of his $437,000 accumulated earnings to veterans despite his promise to “donate every dime” he makes in Washington. The Alabama lawmaker — who is holding up military promotions over the Pentagon’s abortion policy — created the Tommy Tuberville Foundation in 2014, and previously donated to veterans by contributing to the organization. However, IRS records indicate the foundation has spent little on charity causes since its creation and suggest the organization received little to no donations since Tuberville took office. White House deputy press secretary ANDREW BATES tweeted the piece.

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: This Monmouth University poll showing that the administration’s “Bidenomics” push hasn’t helped him get more credit for the economy. Thirty percent of Americans believe that the country’s post-pandemic recovery is better than the rest of the world’s, but the U.S. remains split on how Biden has handled jobs and unemployment. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre pushed back against the report, arguing that the polls “don’t tell the full story.”

THE SECRET MEETING THAT IS NO LONGER A SECRET: Biden met with United Auto Workers leader SHAWN FAIN as Democrats and labor observers brace for a possible strike, our ZACK COLMAN and HOLLY OTTERBEIN scoop. Fain told POLITICO that he pressed Biden to add stronger labor protections to grants and loans funded by the Inflation Reduction Act, as well as aiding workers’ transition to a potential industry dominated by electric vehicles. A work stoppage could have economic and political ramifications for Biden amid a group seen as critical to his reelection bid.

UPDATE ON THE BIDEN ALUM PROXY WAR TAKING PLACE IN THE LAND OF CALAMARI: NICK AUTIELLO, the candidate for whom former first lady press secretary MICHAEL LAROSA is consulting, dropped out of the race to replace Rep. DAVID CICILLINE in Rhode Island’s 1st Congressional District. West Wing Playbook wrote last month about how some White House staffers were irked by LaRosa’s decision to work for Autiello when GABE AMO, a former special assistant to the president and deputy director of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, is also in the race.

In a statement Wednesday, Amo said: “I know that he will continue to do amazing things for our state, our country, and our world. I wish Nick, his husband Eric, and their dog Pompey the best — and hope I run into them at an ice cream shop soon!”

GET COMFORTABLE, IT’S GOING TO BE AWHILE: The effects of Tuberville’s hold on military nominees has made its way into the Pentagon’s policy wing: whoever Biden picks to replace its outgoing top policy official, COLIN KAHL, is slated to wait behind the 275 military officers whose promotions have been stalled.

Although Bloomberg’s JENNIFER JACOBS reported that Biden is expected to tap State Department counselor DEREK CHOLLET, Kahl’s deputy SASHA BAKER is currently serving in an acting role and lacks the authority that a Senate-confirmed pick would carry. Our LARA SELIGMAN has the details.

JOINING FORCES: The Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department on Wednesday released a 51-page document outlining guidelines for corporate mergers, our JOSH SISCO reports for Pro subscribers.

The joint release comes after a string of losses for FTC chair LINA KHAN after the commission lost a high-profile case to prevent Microsoft’s merger with gaming giant Activision Blizzard, while JONATHAN KANTER, DOJ’s assistant attorney general, secured a win for the department in preventing JetBlue and American Airlines from reaching a deal.

IMMIGRATION CONFRONTATION: The White House on Wednesday released a statement of administration policy expressing its opposition to the attempt by Republican lawmakers to withhold education funding from schools that use their buildings as shelters for migrants, our JUAN PEREZ JR. reports for Pro subscribers.

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Stop Micromanaging the War in Ukraine (The Atlantic’s Phillips Payson O’Brien)

FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT. After receiving his mother’s stamp collection when he was eight, Roosevelt would pursue the hobby for the rest of his life and amassed more than 1.2 million at the time of his death.

Thanks to the FDR Presidential Library and Museum for this question!

A CALL OUT — Do you think you have a harder trivia question? Send us your best one about the presidents with a citation and we may feature it.

Edited by Eun Kyung Kim and Sam Stein.