Rumors of US President Donald Trump’s death were discarded after he was photographed playing golf with his granddaughter on Saturday.
The false rumor began circulating on social media on Friday, when different accounts started to point out the lack of footage that official government accounts were releasing of Trump.
A TikTok video that gathered more than 600,000 likes said that there were no official images from Trump since Tuesday morning, while some 158,000 X/Twitter posts including the phrase 'TRUMP IS DEAD' and 42,000 stating 'TRUMP DIED' were made, according to a report by Newsweek.
A photo of Trump finally surfaced on Saturday during a golf game, wearing a MAGA hat alongside his granddaughter, Kai Trump, as official government reports indicated that the president's motorcade had departed towards the Virginia Golf Course that morning.
Not the first time Trump dies on social media
False rumors of Trump's death are not new to social media, as the claim resurfaces on X/Twitter and Reddit every couple of months. According to Grok, X's AI-powered chatbot, posts speculating about Trump's possible demise had acquired over 1.3 million user engagements as of Saturday morning.
Alongside rumors of his death, internet users also speculated about the US president’s health, with theories involving his hands, bruises to his body, and the fact that he doesn’t wear a tie anymore being the norm.
One of these theories was finally confirmed when the White House explained in July that the president had been diagnosed with swelling in his lower legs and bruising on his right hand, after photographs emerged of Trump with swollen ankles and makeup covering the afflicted part of his hand.
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt, reading a letter from Trump's doctor at a press briefing, said that the swelling in his legs was from a "common" vein condition, and his hand was bruised from shaking so many hands.
Reuters contributed to this report.