President Donald Trump has shown signs of life after going missing for four days as evidence mounts of his declining health.
As the president’s swollen cankles, bruising on his hands, problems walking straight, and mental gaffes fuel speculation about his mortality, Trump went four days without a public appearance this week.
However, Trump, 79, was spotted by reporters on Saturday morning on his way to a golf outing.
Dressed in a white polo and MAGA hat, he shook supporters’ hands on his way to the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia. His granddaughter, Kai Trump, accompanied him.
The death-watch fervor hit a fever pitch on Friday when journalist Laura Rozen posted a screenshot of the president’s schedule for the weekend, showing that he had no public events scheduled for Saturday, Sunday, or Monday.
That came after the president was nowhere to be found on Wednesday or Thursday.
His last public sighting before the golf outing was his cabinet meeting on Tuesday, where bruising was visible on his right hand after he unsuccessfully tried to hide his hands on Monday.
Trump has been seen with heavy concealer on both hands in the previous month, adding to the concern generated by his swollen cankles—which are likely a result of the circulation disorder he was diagnosed with in July.
On Thursday, Vice President J.D. Vance inadvertently added fuel to the “Trump’s dead” fire by giving an interview in which he said that he was ready to step into the role of president if needed.
“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,” Vance said, while maintaining that Trump is in “incredibly good health.”
However, conservative commentator Rick Wilson wrote on Friday that “rumors from the Trumpverse” indicate that, behind the scenes, Vance is angling for prime positioning in the “MAGA Hunger Games” contest to be Trump’s successor.
And online, Vance’s reassurances did nothing to stem the tide of musings and memes coming from the anti-MAGA camp.
Google searches for “Is Trump dead?” and “Trump dead” skyrocketed on Friday night, along with “Trump health.”
With those searches came an avalanche of posts praying that the rumors would be substantiated. “Trump is dead” and ”Trump died” were the top two trending topics on X early on Saturday morning.
Notably, Trump continued to post on Truth Social throughout his absence, including a Friday evening screed in response to an appeals court ruling that many of his tariffs are illegal.
“ALL TARIFFS ARE STILL IN EFFECT!” Trump wrote, pledging that “the United States of America will win in the end.”
The president also apparently gave an interview to the Daily Caller‘s Reagan Reese on Friday, which will be released over the weekend.
“I wake up to see people freaking out that Trump’s sick or dead or something because he hasn’t been seen in a few days,” Reese wrote on X. “I was with the president yesterday afternoon. I interviewed him for an hour.”
Trump seemed to have mortality on his mind earlier this month when he went off on a bizarre tangent during an interview about Ukraine.
“I want to try and get to heaven if possible,” the president mused. “I hear I’m really at the bottom of the totem pole.”
For now, Trump will have to wait to find out his eternal fate.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
