{"id":402948,"date":"2025-09-06T15:22:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T15:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/402948\/"},"modified":"2025-09-06T15:22:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T15:22:09","slug":"what-the-is-trump-dead-rumours-reveal-about-our-current-moment-donald-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/402948\/","title":{"rendered":"What the \u2018is Trump dead?\u2019 rumours reveal about our current moment | Donald Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

The death of Joseph Stalin<\/a> took days to become public and remains fodder for conspiracy theories. The death of Donald Trump<\/a> has spawned countless tweets, TikToks and memes long before it even happens.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow did you find out over the weekend that you were dead?\u201d asked Fox News\u2019s Peter Doocy<\/a> with tongue in cheek. \u201cDid you see that?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d Trump responded flatly on Tuesday as senators and administration officials gathered around him in the Oval Office shifted their weight and smiled.<\/p>\n

The speculation that had swirled on social media over the weekend did not reveal much about the health of Trump who, at 79, is the oldest person ever to assume the US presidency.<\/p>\n

But it did offer an insight into an online culture ripe with conspiracy theories, liberal fantasies about Trump\u2019s premature demise and an attention economy in which he has created an expectation that he will all but livestream his presidency 24\/7.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis insatiable hunger for Donald Trump to be gone convinced otherwise intelligent people who pride themselves on scrutiny that here was the hope that he was dead and gone,\u201d said Larry Jacobs<\/a>, director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a window into the danger of misinformation and the way in which that\u2019s accelerated through the online memes and videos. It was quick and fairly effective in convincing thousands, maybe millions of people that Donald Trump<\/a> was actually gone, even though there was no evidence of that other than he hadn\u2019t been seen for a day or two.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rumours played out against a backdrop in which Trump has spent years lying and hiding his medical records while displaying a penchant for McDonald\u2019s and other fast food, though he says he neither drinks nor smokes. Recently he has been seen with bruising on the back of his right hand, sometimes poorly concealed with makeup, and swelling around his ankles.<\/p>\n

The White House has said Trump was diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency, which means veins in the legs can\u2019t properly carry blood back to the heart, causing it to pool in the lower legs. As for the bruising, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said it was from<\/a> \u201cfrequent handshaking and the use of aspirin\u201d, which Trump takes regularly to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s second term in office has delivered a near daily onslaught of speeches, media interactions and social media tirades. But there were no events on his schedule last Wednesday, Thursday or Friday and he took the unusual decision to spend the Labor Day weekend in Washington.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile the USA Today newspaper published an interview<\/a> with JD Vance. When asked if he was ready to assume the role of commander in chief, the vice-president said he was confident that Trump was \u201cin good shape\u201d but also suggested he was prepared to step in if anything happened to the president.<\/p>\n

Forbes reported<\/a> that \u201cTrump\u201d, \u201cis Trump dead\u201d and \u201cTrump dead\u201d were among the top searches on Google as of noon on Saturday. The phrase \u201cWhere is Donald Trump\u201d was trending on X.<\/p>\n

Over the Labor Day weekend, reporters did see Trump leaving the White House each day to visit his Virginia golf course. But he did not stop to talk and photos were blurry and distant. Adding fuel to the fire, the president posted a picture of himself playing golf with a former football coach that was a week old<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fred Wellman, a political consultant, replied on X<\/a>: \u201cThis is insane. The President of the United States is obviously lying about his activities and the lack of curiosity by the media is stunning.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was also no shortage of witty memes and satirical videos. Danny Zuker wrote on the Bluesky platform<\/a>: \u201cVideo shot earlier today shows Trump looking healthy and happy,\u201d next to an image of a young Trump at a party with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.<\/p>\n

The president posted his own messages on social media, including the claim that he \u201cNEVER FELT BETTER IN MY LIFE\u201d, but conspiracy theorists were quick to dismiss them as the work of aides engaged in an elaborate cover-up.<\/p>\n

The new week began with social media users asserting that roads<\/a> had been closed around Walter Reed national military medical center in Bethesda, Maryland, where Trump was treated for Covid-19 five years ago. Extremely online politicos worked themselves up into a frenzy, speculating that Trump was inside and at death\u2019s door.<\/p>\n

To be, or not to be? The president, it transpired, was still very much alive. On Tuesday he held an Oval Office event to announce that the US Space Command would be relocated to Huntsville, Alabama, and fielded reporters\u2019 questions as usual.<\/p>\n

Asked by Doocy about the intimations of mortality, the president replied: \u201cI knew they were saying, like: \u2018Is he OK? How is he feeling? What\u2019s wrong?\u2019\u201d Trump said, calling the speculation \u201cfake news\u201d and saying he \u201cwas very active over the weekend\u201d.<\/p>\n

The answer shed little light on Trump\u2019s physical and mental condition, a subject that was a constant drag on his predecessor Joe Biden<\/a>. But the fevered rumours did underline how Trump is missed when he is not filling the airwaves. For this president, nothing could be more shocking than the sound of silence.<\/p>\n

Reed Galen<\/a>, president of the Union, a pro-democracy coalition, said: \u201cThe guy is so omnipresent that when he\u2019s gone for 36 or 48 hours he leaves such a hole in the news. For those who make a political living on bashing Donald Trump, you need the daily tweets, you need the daily outrage, you need the insanity of a cabinet meeting or a pool spray in the Oval Office. When you don\u2019t have it you\u2019re like, wait!<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like you\u2019re addicted, like you gotta eat ice-cream every day, and one day you don\u2019t get your ice-cream and wait a second, something\u2019s missing. What\u2019s happening? The medium is the message. He has created this beast that even he must feed and, when he doesn\u2019t, people are like, \u2018wait a second, what\u2019s going on?\u2019 because it\u2019s so out of character.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others detect a double standard in the way that Biden and Trump\u2019s age and health are scrutinised. Drexel Heard<\/a>, a Democratic strategist based in Los Angeles, said: \u201cThere are the speculations: what\u2019s happening with Donald Trump\u2019s hand? What\u2019s that on his head? It\u2019s little bits and pieces. It\u2019s almost like Swifties trying to find the clues from Taylor Swift but it\u2019s nothing until the person actually says what it is.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cDonald Trump is as old as Joe Biden. How it is not being covered the same way, I\u2019ll never know. Same thing with any of our older politicians that we\u2019re not covering the same as we did with Joe Biden. That was started by Donald Trump, who spent most of his time during his off presidency years talking about how old Joe Biden was and laying that groundwork for people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like many other Trump dramas over the past decade, this one culminated in an opportunity to make money. On Thursday a pro-Trump political action committee called Never Surrender<\/a> blasted out a fundraising email entitled \u201cMemo from Trump\u201d that began: \u201cI\u2019M ALIVE! The fake news media and the radical left tried to spread LIES, saying your favorite President, Donald J. Trump, was dead or sick. Can you believe it?<\/p>\n

\u201cDISGRACEFUL! Let me tell you something, I\u2019m more alive than ever! They say I wasn\u2019t around for a couple of days, and suddenly they\u2019re writing my obituary? Meanwhile, Crooked Joe Biden could disappear for months, and the media wouldn\u2019t say a word. SAD!\u201d<\/p>\n

The email invited readers to \u201cstand with Trump\u201d by contributing cash. But anyone itching to write the headline \u201cDeath of a Salesman\u201d will have to wait.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The death of Joseph Stalin took days to become public and remains fodder for conspiracy theories. The death…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":402949,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[12,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-402948","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115158040213523962","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}