President Donald Trump was out of the public eye for a few days, and as far as many leftists were concerned, that meant only one thing: he was dead, or at very least severely incapacitated, and the White House was desperately trying to cover up the fact for as long as it possibly could. X was filled with leftists crowing over the demise of the man they consider to be the focus of evil in the modern world.
Others speculated on what kind of president they thought JD Vance would be, and rejoiced over what they predicted would be the inevitable dissolution of the “MAGA cult.” The joy was so general among leftists that on Tuesday, after Trump had reappeared, Politico felt compelled to run the ultimate leftist buzzkill headline: “Trump denies he’s dead.”
It isn’t hard to picture the sad looks on the faces of Politico’s top dogs, and its readers as well, as the story with that headline started making the rounds. Leftists had allowed themselves to get their hopes up so high, as if Vance were Barack Hussein Obama himself and Trump’s death would return them to the good old days when cancel culture reigned unquestioned, strong men quailed at the prospect of referring to men who insisted that they were women as “he,” and the triumph of leftism seemed inevitable and very nearly complete.
Politico actually does a reasonably creditable job of summarizing the left’s elation and disappointment, although it refrained from quoting some of the choicer and more hysterical takes. The leftist rag even used the term “conspiracy theorists” for those who were prematurely celebrating the president’s passing, breaking the unwritten (as far as we know) establishment media law that “conspiracy theorists” can only be patriots, never leftists.
Those conspiracy theorists, according to Politico, “had a field day wondering whether President Donald Trump was seriously ill, or even dead. Photos of the president were magnified, his voice was analyzed and his schedule was scrutinized.” The article then goes on to disappoint its readers by noting that the president “is very much alive but was compelled to address the rumors today during an unrelated Oval Office announcement that the U.S. Space Command would be relocated to Huntsville, Alabama.”
Politico quotes Trump marveling at the uproar: “Last week, I did numerous news conferences. … And then I didn’t do any for two days and they said, ‘There must be something wrong with him.’” It even includes Trump’s noting of the double standard regarding his predecessor: Old Joe Biden, said the president, “wouldn’t do them for months,” that is, press conferences. “You wouldn’t see him. And nobody ever said there was ever anything wrong with him.”
Indeed. Politico, however, is not interested in this unequal treatment. It goes on to explore the ravings of the conspiracy theorists in a bit more detail: “If this all seems strange, it shouldn’t. Suggesting the president is dead and replaced by a body double is a time-worn sport — but it’s becoming even more common of late.” Now, remember: these conspiracy theorists are all leftists who hate Trump, but Politico manages to suggest that all this was inspired by… you guessed it: “Trump himself promoted a theory in June that Biden was killed in 2020 and replaced by a body double, reposting a baseless suggestion by an anonymous Truth Social user that the former president was replaced with ‘clones’ and ‘doubles’ as well as ‘robotic engineered soulless mindless entities.’”
Related: After Days of Claiming Trump was Dead, Leftists Get a Nasty Shock
So you see, when leftists start insisting that Trump is dead and making up all sorts of fanciful stories to support their theory, they’re just doing what Trump does, and so it’s all, in the end, the fault of Donald Trump yet again. Yet after serving up a potted history of presidents and first ladies using body doubles, or being rumored to be using body doubles, going back to Franklin D. Roosevelt, Politico jumped into the conspiracy theory pool. It noted that much of the speculation centered upon one “blurry photo” that “showed Trump in a white polo and ‘USA’ hat, sporting classic Trump golfing apparel.” The only catch was that “some users enhanced the photo to depict a man who, erm, did not look like the president. One of the posts received 13,000 likes and 3.2 million views.” It quoted one commenter saying: “That’s a body double crisis/ crisis actor.”
Trump, however, “insisted he was alive,” — no kidding, really? — and Judge James Boasberg wasn’t around to tell him that he was actually dead and demand that he lie down in a coffin. “That’s why,” Politico quoted Trump as saying about the controversy, “the media has so little credibility.” That’s right, and Politico added to the credibility problem by concluding its article with a sentence that was supposed to look like a bit of wry humor and yet leave the door open for the conspiracy theorists: “Time will tell if that quiets the rumors or just leads some to suspect that, that is exactly what a body double would say.”
Yes, Politico, time will tell whether or not Trump is really alive. Your friends really couldn’t stand another bout of wild elation followed by crushing disappointment akin to what they went through last week, could they?
