Why Was Social Media Convinced Trump Was Dead?
- JM Valat De Córdova
- Sep 3, 2025
- 3 min read
BRIDGEPORT, CONNECTICUT – Across the country this weekend, people opened up their social media of choice, whether that be twitter, various meta holdings (instagram, facebook), or tiktok, and at the same time, everybody found out, that apparently, everyone else was convinced that our President of America, Donald Trump was dead.
On Twitter (now X) people were asking “Where is Donald Trump?” Others were convinced that his lack of media appearances meant a coverup over his apparent death, some were engaging in what is commonly known on the platform as engagement farming, essentially piling on to the already trending topic so that they get more likes, views, and also replies telling them that they’re wrong.
So, how did this ridiculous, and slightly funny thing convince a decent chunk of America and the outside world that Donald J. Trump had passed away due to old age and complications relating to the white house’s admitted chronic venous deficiency?
Well, first, we have to understand how things spread on social media. According to figures in Adam Aleksic’s book Algospeak (also known online as etymologynerd) people sharing shortform videos can expand the audience of a video dramatically, 90% according to him. Reason would stand that the same or similar algorithms would apply to the type of content that was largely causing the viral spread of misinformation around Trump’s alleged death, meaning as more and more people shared the sensational and sensationally wrong news surrounding his death, the group of people who thought Trump was dead, or seriously injured, had grown exponentially, or virally.
So, when an account like “@buffys” on twitter was tweeting out the misinformation (or disinformation) that Trump was dead, or to be more precise “the streets are saying that Trump is dead”, the kindling of the fire isn’t just set, but has gasoline poured onto it and is lit on fire. With more and more accounts tweeting about and asking whether Trump was dead, even though he clearly wasn’t.
As a journalist, I of course have to keep up with stories like this on twitter (you can follow me here) and over the weekend saw a shocking amount of smart and not incredibly stupid people saying something that could not be more sensationally wrong. So, of course, I had to engage with the bait and tell people that this was wrong. This is another layer of why the fake news spread so rapidly. The more people said “no Trump is probably not dead, actually” the more the algorithm is hearing “wow! People really engage with this type of content, we have to push this more so people stay glued to their screens”. And, of course, a good chunk of the population wishes Trump was dead, so when they see this content about Trump dying, they engage. And so, the engagement bait is taken, and virality is achieved.
Now, was there a crumble of truth to the speculation? Yes, sort of (although not really, and of course, all conspiracies have a crumb of truth to them). Trump had no scheduled media appearances for the weekend, and as a person and president who ravishes media attending, that was odd.
And of course, Trump’s perennial bruising on his hand which the White House has was forced to admit existed after pressure from social media users and traditional media outlets, and to this day claim is from shaking too many hands, even though it clearly is not, and has been seen reappearing specifically on later parts of the month, according to some investigative reporting done by twitter users.
There is plenty of reason to doubt the President’s health, especially if you are of a more conspiratorially minded nature. Certainly, we at The Radical Times agree that you must doubt all power figures, especially when there is clearly a story or secret hidden behind the veil of the administration’s alternative facts. However, Donald J. Trump is not dead. No matter if you want
