Trump biographer Maggie Haberman has called out the president for insisting he knew nothing about the rampant rumors regarding his health.
The Trump whisperer said the president’s post to Truth Social—in which he wrote that he “NEVER FELT BETTER IN MY LIFE”—was proof that he was cognizant of the online conspiracies that he had secretly died in office.
“He clearly was aware of it,” The New York Times reporter told CNN’s Kaitlin Collins. Haberman said the health rumor conspiracy took off partly because Trump has not been open in the past.
Social media, particularly X, was flooded with unfounded rumors over the weekend that Trump, 79, was dead or on the verge of death. They came after the attention-loving president, who has been showing his age more and more this summer, briefly disappeared from the public eye.
After a cabinet meeting that spanned 3 hours on Aug. 26, Trump did not make a public appearance for an entire week—a rarity for him. Rumors that he was dead or ill were amplified by the fact that he has lately struggled to walk in a straight line, has bruises on his hands, has severely swollen ankles, and has suffered mental lapses.
Trump, who spent the weekend golfing but was only photographed from a distance, faced the press again on Tuesday. Fox News reporter Peter Doocy asked him a softball question about his health, which elicited a bizarre, rambling response from the president, during which he claimed to know nothing about the death rumors.
“How did you find out over the weekend that you were dead?” Doocy asked him.
Trump responded in part, “I didn’t hear that one, that’s pretty serious. Well, it’s fake news. You know, it’s just so—it’s so fake. That’s why the media has so little credibility. I didn’t—I knew they were saying, like, ‘Is he okay? How’s he feeling? What’s wrong?’ I said, I just left.”
Trump appeared to contradict himself during other portions of his long answer to Doocy. He also told the Fox reporter that he was given “reports” about what was being said about him.
Haberman pointed out the contradiction on CNN and shed additional insight into why the president is so sheepish when it comes to discussing his health. She also noted that he was older than any previous president at the time of his swearing in.
“I think he said three different things in that answer,” she said of Trump’s response to Doocy. “He said he didn’t know. Then said he did know. Then he said he was informed.”
Haberman continued, “Look, President Trump has never been transparent about his health. He was much sicker with COVID than the White House said in 2020. He took this mysterious Walter Reed visit in 2019, that was later said to be a colonoscopy. But he doesn’t like talking about his health. And so, in some ways, he invites this. And if you’re going to be absent for six days after talking, especially about President Biden’s long absences from the public, you’re going to get these questions.”
The post Trump Was ‘Clearly’ Aware of Death Rumors Despite Claiming Otherwise appeared first on The Daily Beast.
