Is he dead? US president's brief absence sparks social media frenzy

The death of Stalin took days to become public and remains fodder for conspiracy theories. The death of Donald Trump has spawned countless tweets, TikToks and memes before it has even happened.

- David Smith

The death of Stalin took days to become public and remains fodder for conspiracy theories. The death of Donald Trump has spawned countless tweets, TikToks and memes before it has even happened. "How did you find out over the weekend that you were dead?" asked Fox News's Peter Doocy. "Did you see that?"

"No," Trump responded flatly on Tuesday as senators and administration officials gathered around him in the Oval Office shifted their weight and smiled.

The speculation on social media over the weekend did not reveal much about the health of Trump who, at 79, is the oldest person to assume the US presidency. But it did offer an insight into an online culture ripe with conspiracy theories, liberal fantasies about Trump's demise and an attention economy in which he has created an expectation that he will all but livestream his presidency 24/7.

"This insatiable hunger for Donald Trump to be gone convinced otherwise intelligent people who pride themselves on scrutiny that here was the hope he was dead and gone," said Larry Jacobs, the director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota.

"It is a window into the danger of misinformation and the way in which that's accelerated through the online memes and videos," Jacobs added. "It was quick and fairly effective in convincing thousands, maybe millions of people that Donald Trump was actually gone even though there was no evidence other than he hadn't been seen for a day or two."