Why Donald Trump Death Rumors and Health Conspiracies Will Keep Going Viral

Donald Trump appeared live from the Oval Office on Tuesday, standing in front of a podium and, though having emerged nearly an hour later than scheduled, looking entirely normal. Flanked by members of his administration and select Republican members of Congress, Trump announced that US Space Command would be moving from Colorado to Huntsville, Alabama. It was a seemingly mundane announcement, but the live appearance had deeper significance for the chronically online: proof of life after a weekend of rampant speculation about his health.

Presidential vitality has long been a reliable font for conspiracies, but the speed and breadth of the most recent round of speculation—spurred largely by a lack of scheduled public appearances, some slightly inopportune asides from Vice President JD Vance, and a news aggregator powered by the online betting site Polymarket—served as a reminder of how singular a figure Trump is in such matters. His tendency to engage with rumor and speculation himself and the rabidity of feeling he inspires in admirers and detractors alike both seem to play a large role.

“Trump’s death has been the subject of a lot of online content for years now, but especially over the past year, since he took office,” Taylor Lorenz, an internet-culture journalist and the author of Extremely Online, tells Vanity Fair. As morbid as it might be, she adds, “there’s this pent-up anticipation and excitement for it to happen.”

When people notice a confluence of any activity relating to Trump’s health, it becomes an opportunity to post jokes about the possibility of his passing, which fuels further speculation.

“It sort of just feeds itself,” Lorenz says.

“It feels cathartic for these people that feel like Trump has done enormous harm over the past two terms,” Lorenz explains, noting that that’s why you see Spotify playlists titled with some variation of “When It Happens,” made in preparation to celebrate Trump’s eventual demise.

Adam Cochran, a tech and crypto investor, as well as an academic who conducts what he considers to be independent investigative journalism, contributed extensively to the discourse, posting a 31-part thread proposing that the White House was partaking in a cover-up. With Cochran’s follower count of more than 200,000 on X, plus the additional boost that the platform’s verification system provides, the first post in his Sunday-afternoon thread has been viewed 11.3 million times, amassing 71,000 likes as of Wednesday afternoon. He argues that while some people, himself included, would celebrate Trump’s no longer being in office, “that is markedly different than wishing him ill.” Cochran tells VF that, in most cases, the crass jokes about Trump’s demise stem from “people’s frustrations rather than actual wishes of harm.”

During his Tuesday press briefing in the Oval Office, Trump was asked about the theories, dismissing them as “fake news.” Trump claimed that he was “very active, actually, over the weekend,” referencing his exhaustive Truth Social posting and visits to his Virginia golf club. He also pointed to appearances last week, including an interview he did with The Daily Caller.

Concern over Trump’s transparency on the matter of his personal health is not entirely unwarranted. At the end of his term, Trump will be the oldest serving president ever, and his second term follows Joe Biden’s tumultuous presidency, which was often overshadowed by intense speculation over the now former president’s mental acuity.

“Trump has never been forthcoming about his health,” New York Times reporter and Trump chronicler Maggie Haberman told me in a June interview. She recalled October 2020, when Trump—who, she said, “views sickness as weakness”—was diagnosed with COVID and reportedly turned out to have been far more ill than he and the administration let on. Some officials believed, per Haberman, that Trump could have died had he not been given a Regeneron treatment involving monoclonal antibodies. “That’s scary, how perilous that moment was, and how little real-time information the public had,” Haberman said.

In July, the White House announced that Trump, 79, had been diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency, which his physician, Sean Barbabella, described in a memo as “benign and common.” Barbabella also addressed a bruise that had recently been seen on Trump’s hand, deeming it “consistent with minor soft tissue irritation from frequent handshaking.” Photographs from Tuesday’s Oval Office press conference appear to show that one of Trump’s hands was still bruised, not entirely concealed by a layer of makeup.

The latest round of speculation slowed somewhat on Saturday morning, when Trump was spotted by pool reporters on the South Lawn of the White House, where he was photographed with his granddaughter Kai Trump as they prepared to head to his golf club. His appearance was paired with a flurry of Truth Social activity that extended late into the evening, covering a wild array of topics, including the newly renovated Rose Garden, crime in DC, voter ID, and the congressional blue-slip process.

Yet on Sunday, a post from Trump featuring a photo of himself and football coach turned Barstool Sports personality Jon Gruden playing golf sparked theories again. While the post didn’t specify that the photo was taken that day, it didn’t help that Gruden had posted a photo of himself in the same outfit just over a week prior. Trump seemingly addressed the theories in a post on Sunday afternoon, writing, “NEVER FELT BETTER IN MY LIFE.”

Even if the Truth Social posts and Tuesday’s live announcement have been able to somewhat quell rampant speculation for the time being, “these things snowball,” Lorenz says, “and it’s like a pressure valve.”

As of Wednesday, the Polymarket odds on Trump’s being “out” of the presidency by the end of the year hovered around 6%.