President Donald Trump was asked directly on Tuesday about the firestorm of speculation that ran rampant on social media over the weekend, suggesting that he had died.
The unsubstantiated rumors of his demise came after the president had not held a public event where he took questions from the media for several days before the holiday weekend amid ongoing questions about his health.
“How did you find out over the weekend that you were dead?” asked Fox News’ Peter Doocy in the Oval Office.
Doocy noted that people had not seen the 79-year-old president for a couple of days.
“I have heard,” Trump responded. “It’s sort of crazy, but last week, I did numerous news conferences, all very successful.”
The president held a more than three-hour Cabinet meeting a week ago, where he answered numerous questions from reporters after his team went around the room lavishing praise. Still, he did not have any public events after that.
Trump was, however, spotted from afar going to and from his golf course over the holiday weekend.
On Tuesday, the president was confronted about his absence during a gathering for an announcement in the Oval Office, where he was again seen with makeup covering his right hand.
“I didn’t do any for two days, and they said there must be something wrong with him,” Trump complained. “Biden wouldn’t do them for months. You wouldn’t see him, and nobody ever said there was ever anything wrong with him, and we know he wasn’t in the greatest of shape.”
The president rattled off a series of activities he has undertaken while not holding any public events in recent days.
Trump argued that he did an interview that went about an hour and a half, did “numerous” shows, and touted several long “pretty poignant truths.”
Despite not holding public appearances over the holiday weekend, he continued to post regularly on Truth Social from behind closed doors.
“They also know I went out to visit some people at the, at the club that I own pretty nearby on the Potomac River,” the president noted. “No, I’ve been very active actually over the weekend.”
The president said he had not heard the claims of his death that swept social media, but called it “pretty serious.”
“It’s fake news, you know,” Trump said. “It’s just so, it’s so fake. That’s why the media has so little credibility.”
While the president attacked the media, no news organization were reporting his demise. The speculation remained strictly on social media.
“I knew they were saying, like, ‘Is he ok? How’s he feeling? What’s wrong?’” Trump said before trailing off.
“It’s also sort of a longer weekend, you know. It’s Labor Day weekend, so I would say a lot of people...” he continued. “No, I was very active this Labor Day. I had heard that, but I didn’t hear it to this extent.”
The question about the social media reports of his demise was one of multiple questions the president answered on Tuesday. It was the first time he was confronted directly amid speculation about his health.
The president has been seen with a recurring bruise on his right hand, which he sometimes covers with concealer, since returning to office. His swollen ankles also raised concerns, but the White House has remained evasive.
It announced he had been diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency, which caused the ankle swelling in July, and attributed the bruising on his hand to serial handshaking while noting he takes aspirin.
Trump himself has not addressed the bruising covering his hand or his swollen ankles directly.
