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Weekly US politics news and updates thread - week of September 1
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There is a lot of activity online about Trump's health.
Here's one article about it from a semi-reputable source that just mentions the rumors:
Newsweek: Trump is playing golf after baseless viral death rumors
And another: Newseek: Donald Trump Posting Week-Old Photo Raises Eyebrows Amid Health Speculation
I've read a few different bits of info from less reputable sources but here are the facts as far as I can tell:
Of course there is a big circus of speculation about his health and how bad he looks when he does appear in public. Also that pictures of him have either been doctored or he is using a body double.
It seems like Trump's lifelong habit of lying about everything is working against any efforts to reduce these rumors. The sloppy incompetence of his messaging and his administration in general don't help either.
I was just starting to feel nostalgic for the days when my girlfriend would tell me the latest Kate Middleton conspiracy theory, so this came at the perfect time. From an outside observer, they seem to have a very similar vibe.
Between my natural cynicism and the historical record of evil mfers living forever, I feel like this is all wishful thinking - bold statement, I know. I bet he's getting his eyes done or something and needs to lay low for a few days. That said, the slurred speech has been very noticable the past few weeks and he somehow seems to look worse every day. Who am I to sour someone's dreams? If, somehow, he is dead or dying, I really hope JD Vance was/will be the last person to see him.
I mean the hand bruise is basically nothing? It means for one of a zillion reasons they did an IV on his hand. Given his age he will bruise like a banana.
Could be some emergency life saving procedure or they could have banana bagged him for some reason. It means nothing on its own and it’s absurd how people have clamped onto this multiple times.
Like every other person of wealth and power he’s probably getting weekly health checkups and instant corrections and investigations to ANYTHING that might be out of whack.
I have no doubt he’s showing his age and probably has a legit diagnosis, but from the information the public had he could drop dead tomorrow or in 15 years.
Hell I recall a few years ago how the internet was CERTAIN charles iii was going to drop dead within a year due to the state of just his fingers. And people have been swearing Putin has cancer for a decade.
There’s observations that can be made that are factual (he does have a bruise. He does look swollen/worse. He is less coherent) but any hard diagnosis beyond that is just guessing and pointless. Someone will claim they called it when he does die and everyone will ignore the years of misses
But they said it was due to shaking hands while taking aspirin. Which, idk, seems inaccurate to me at least.
It's really the fact that the administration and the president lie all the time and a lot of folks have hit a level of distrust that is much harder to overcome than typical. Add in that usually he'd be responding to Vance's comments about being ready to take over in an aggressive way, or that his social media posts don't read like him (sure it's probably an intern), and it's not hard to come away with the idea that the administration is lying about this too.
I think it gets overblown and there are plenty of things I think aren't accurate or can't confirm. But also personally the vibes feel off so, we'll see.
I’ve talked to more than one Trump supporter who claims the coverup of Biden’s health problems were a major factor in how they voted. Regardless of trumps actual condition, there is clearly a coverup.
Note I fully expect the aforementioned Trump supporters to be immune to any feelings of hypocrisy.
It's not even the supporters. It's the media for me. Where's all the "is he capable of doing the job" concern now? I don't see it.
Well, give it a few weeks. If poor health continues then there will be more evidence.
Will it make a difference? They’ve been repeatedly telling everyone that Trump is unqualified all along. The influence of mainstream media is very limited these days, particularly on Trump supporters.
I don't really care if it makes a difference, I'm just tired of the apparent hypocrisy. Similarly if they finally do it in a few weeks I'll still be annoyed that it took this long. So no, I'm not waiting.
The lack of trust in both major journalistic outfits and the administration is earned.
100%, but that doesn't mean the alternative is "on death's door". As you said, he'd lie if it literally was just a banana bag because that too would mean admitting too much that he might not be perfect.
Agreed. But honestly anything less would probably have been ignored. At least #wherestrump and #istrumpdead trending got a media response eventually.
It's just not surprising to me given the persistent lies.
I did laugh at a post that was, broadly, "the president doesn't commit an impeachable offense for 2 days and we're all ready to declare him dead."
He's just creating a spectacle so that a lot of people tune in at 2pm to hear the latest unhinged policy announcement.
Which has been leaked to allegedly just be Space Force moving to Alabama ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Edit: and it was.
To add to the conspiracy fodder: a friend shared a screenshot of the notification of the announcement at 2, and pointed out that it says "THE PRESIDENT makes an announcement" when it usually says "President Trump". And another friend pointed out that all roads to Walter Reed Medical Center were closed.
Mostly we're just laughing about how every bit of information and picture is just more fodder for conspiracy nuts. But at this point, I'm honestly starting to think something DID happen. Not death, but he may have had a stroke. I might tune into it at 2 pm just long enough to see if it's Trump or Vance.
Apparently the Walter Reed entrances are usually reduced in holidays. I don't know if that's accurate but the speed of misinfo makes it hard to keep up with.
People are latching onto anything they can and just going wild over the tiniest details. I suspect it's half serious speculation, half trolls egging on conspiracy nuts to enjoy the show.
kremlinology
The World No Longer Takes Trump Seriously
Trump's presidency is just such a complete disaster in every way that I'm continually shocked that there is still such a large number of people who defend it. It's hard to see how Fox News or Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk or any number of conservatives think kakistorcracy is a better alternative than anything else.
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