President Donald Trump has shown signs of life after going missing for four days.
As the president’s swollen cankles, bruising on his hands, problems walking straight, and mental gaffes fueled speculation about his mortality, Trump went most of the week without a public appearance.
However, the president, 79, was spotted by reporters on Saturday morning on his way to a golf outing.
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Dressed in a white polo shirt and red MAGA hat, he shook supporters’ hands on his way to the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia. His granddaughter Kai Trump accompanied him.
Trump’s (for him) prolonged absence from the public eye this week inspired an online death-watch fever, which peaked Friday when journalist Laura Rozen posted a screenshot of the president’s schedule for the weekend, showing 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. He had tried, unsuccessfully, to hide his hands on Monday.
Trump has been wearing heavy concealer on his hands during the last 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 JD Vance inadvertently added fuel to the “Trump’s dead” fire in 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 learn his eternal fate.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this article included a video link that purported to show Trump greeting supporters at his golf club in Sterling, Virginia on Saturday. The clip, however, had first circulated online in June.
