Where is Donald Trump?
Rumors about the president’s whereabouts — and even his well-being — have been swirling across social media.
Trending topics Saturday included #whereistrump and #trumpdied, mostly because the president hasn’t been seen in public since Tuesday and he has no public events scheduled this weekend.
“‘Trump is dead’ is trending, and people are using it just for engagement. Here, someone’s death becomes a growth opportunity,” posted one X user. “Who’s more evil: politics or social media?’”
Donald Trump isn’t dead — at least there’s no evidence he is. In fact, he was active on Truth Social on Friday, railing against a court order on tariffs and even suggesting he might defy it.
But some on social media pointed out the messages aren’t quite written in Trump’s style.
For instance, David Pakman, a political commentator with 1.2 million followers on Tik-Tok, pointed out that Trump’s recent Truth Social posts “could have been written by anybody.”
As evidence, he pointed out that one sentence contained an “em dash,” typically associated with ChatGPT writing.
Another post uses the word “literally,” which Pakman says is “not something that Donald Trump does in his Truth Social posts.”
Some folks online have speculated the rumors started after reporters raised questions about Trump’s health, including purple splotchy marks on both of his hands.
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There were also recent comments from Vice President JD Vance that he was prepared to assume the presidency if a tragedy should befall Trump.
In an exclusive interview with USA TODAY, Vance said he is prepared to be president, if “God forbid” President Donald Trump experienced a “terrible tragedy.”
“Yes, things can always happen,” Vance responded when asked if he was ready to assume office if something were to happen with Trump, who was the target of two assassination attempts while on the campaign trail last year.
However, Barak Ravid, a global affairs reporter for Axios, tweeted that a pool photographer snapped a photo of Trump early Saturday morning.
“POTUS’s motorcade began rolling at 8:45 a.m.,” Ravid tweeted.
Earlier, the journalist posted: “Trump is OK. Will play Golf this morning.”
Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com.
