Over Labor Day Weekend 2025, President Donald Trump became the subject of a conspiracy theory.
The president, for a few days, was keeping an unusually low profile — and conspiracy theorists were claiming that he had died. But that claim was disproven by a photo that Trump ally John Fredericks posted on X, formerly Twitter; according to Fredericks, his wife Anne took that photo of Trump on Sunday, August 31 around 4 PM Eastern Time at the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia.
Trump has never been shy about promoting far-right conspiracy theories — only this time, he was the subject.
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In an article published on September 3, Salon's Sophia Tesfaye emphasizes that Trump now finds himself imperiled by two things he championed in the past — conspiracy theories and "ageism."
During former President Joe Biden's four years in the White House, Trump repeatedly accused him of being senile and conflated Biden's frequent gaffes — the result of a speech impediment — with mental impairment.
"Tuesday’s presser — which was announced late on Labor Day, after the online chatter had reached a fevered crescendo despite furtive sightings from the White House press pool on Saturday, Sunday and Monday at Trump's golf club in Sterling, Va. — felt very much like a panicked proof of life event," Tesfaye explains. "Still, Trump pretended to not understand the commotion ... The guy who normalized age-based mockery is now suffering from the mirror's glare."
Trump's age, Tesfaye stresses, is receiving more and more attention — and it has reached the point where conspiracy theorists are claiming he died when in fact, he was very much alive.
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"When he was inaugurated on January 20," Tesfaye observes, "Trump became the oldest person to assume the presidency. Should he stay in office for his full four-year term, Trump will break Biden's record as the oldest serving president. Now, as his own body language and absences trigger doubt, the groundwork laid by his brutal attacks on the former president is amplifying the fallout. On Friday, for instance, just before the online chatter began picking up, Trump announced, in an interview with The Daily Caller, plans to substitute an image of the autopen with a portrait of Biden in the White House."
The conspiracy theories involving Trump, Tesfaye notes, were promoted by a media outlet often gives him very favorable coverage: Fox News.
"According to the Associated Press," the Salon journalist observes, "Trump's absence and concerns about his health were not covered by much of the mainstream press before Fox News brought the online conspiracy theories right to Trump's doorsteps. Few other Trump-friendly outlets dared touch the subject ... This world of conspiracy theories and misinformation is a weapon of his own making. Now, it's a double-edged sword that Trump has to confront and handle in his own home."
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Sophia Tesfaye's full article for Salon is available at this link.