Naomi, "trips up" would be fine. "Baffles" has less of a flavor of falling over, "confounds" or "perplexes" is less loaded but may be unusual depending on your audience. Then you have "stumps" or even the bland "catches/catches out" or "traps" depending on your context.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
