Trump says rumours about his health are ‘fake news’
Donald Trump has faced speculation about his health online. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Donald Trump has faced speculation about his health online. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
US president Donald Trump has shut down rumours that he is in ill health, decrying the allegations – which gripped social media at the weekend – as “fake”.
Rumours about the state of the 78-year-old president’s health ran rife on social media after many noted he had been absent from public view for days, bruises were spotted on his hands when he signed executive orders in the White House and his vice president JD Vance said he was ready to take over in the event of a “tragedy”.
Some suggested the president’s absence was due to him being gravely ill, whilst others claimed he was already dead and the White House was hiding it as officials scrambled to sort out official procedures.
The social media chatter even led to “Where is Donald Trump” and “is Trump dead” to trend and the questions became ranked as some of Google’s top US searches.
The flames of speculation were stoked further when it was confirmed Trump would give a mystery address to the nation at 2pm Eastern (7pm in the UK) on Tuesday (2 September).
It turns out, in fact, the address was about Department of Defence’s space centre, Space Command, moving from Colorado to Huntsville in Alabama, which Trump said would now be known as “Rocket City”.
During the press conference, Trump shut down rumours about his health and admitted he “didn’t hear” of the online conspiracy theories about his supposed illness and death, saying the conspiracy theories were “pretty serious stuff” and “fake news”.
He added he had been “very active over the weekend”.
“You know, I have heard it’s sort of crazy, but last week, I did numerous news conferences, all successful…And then I didn’t do any for two days, and they said there must be something wrong with him,” he said. “Biden wouldn’t do them for months.”
