Labor Day Weekend the "Trump is dead" rumor, was fueled by left-wing influencers, which spiraled from two minor details into a viral conspiracy.
It began with photos of Trump showing swollen ankles and a hand bruise, followed by a July 17 White House statement confirming he had chronic venous insufficiency, a common condition, but was in "excellent health."
Next, a misquoted August 27 interview with Vice President J.D. Vance went viral. Asked if he was ready to assume the presidency, Vance replied, “If, God forbid, there's a terrible tragedy, I can't think of better on-the-job training than what I've gotten over the last 200 days.”
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| John Glanz |
Social media activity surged.
On August 28, after two days without a Trump appearance, “Trump is dead” appeared 915 times across X, Reddit, YouTube, and Bluesky, with 489,822 engagements (likes, shares, comments). By September 3, mentions skyrocketed to 8,971, with 3,752,585 engagements, per Rolli IQ.
The most viral post, garnering 13.9 million views on X, was by John Ganz, author of When the Clock Broke) on August 30, stating, "Trump is dead. He died on Wednesday."
Ganz explained the post was a spontaneous “s***post” prompted by a Mets game blackout. He tweeted about Trump’s absence, found it amusing when friends liked it, and went to bed. He awoke to hundreds of thousands of likes and angry responses, surprised by the post’s impact.