If the Trump administration is hoping to quell speculation that the president is dead, posting an old photo as proof of life didn’t exactly do the trick.
President Donald Trump, 79, was largely absent from public view for several days last week, sparking an online death-watch fueled by his visibly swollen cankles, bruising on his hands, difficulty walking, and a string of mental gaffes.
Though reporters spotted him in-person Saturday morning at Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia, Trump seemed to directly respond to the viral speculation on Sunday with a Truth Social post featuring a photo of himself golfing with disgraced NFL coach Jon Gruden.
Truth Social
“Great playing Golf with Jon Gruden — A really nice guy, and true character!” the president wrote, alongside a photo of him fist-bumping the once-venerated coach, who was wearing a Trump hat.
But the post quickly backfired when eagle-eyed social media users dug up an Instagram post from Gruden dated Aug. 23, showing him in the exact same clothes—fueling theories that the image Trump posted wasn’t recent at all.
That hypothesis was all but confirmed after sleuths uncovered Associated Press footage from Aug. 23 showing Trump himself wearing the same outfit as the one in his Truth Social post.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
The eyebrow-raising post came after MAGA diehards slammed those who questioned Trump’s unusually long disappearance (for him) from the public eye.
“It’s been pretty sick to watch certain members of the press so diddy at the prospect of President Trump being ill that they ran with fake rumors he was dying or already dead,” MAGA podcaster Charlie Kirk wrote Saturday in a post on X.
It’s been pretty sick to watch certain members of the press so diddy at the prospect of President Trump being ill that they ran with fake rumors he was dying or already dead. These are bad people. Instead he’s playing golf with Super Bowl champion head coach Jon Gruden 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/sWcVbj4VBx
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) August 31, 2025
He continued: “These are bad people. Instead he’s playing golf with Super Bowl champion head coach Jon Gruden.”
While Democrats swore Trump was having a medical emergency, he was out golfing with Jon Gruden!
He’s at the TOP OF HIS GAME! pic.twitter.com/FwxkPk6XZ7
— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) August 31, 2025
“While Democrats swore Trump was having a medical emergency, he was out golfing with Jon Gruden!” radical right-wing commentator David J. Freeman, who goes by “Gunther Eagleman” on social media, added. “He’s at the TOP OF HIS GAME!”
But after Democrats provided receipts that the so-called “proof of life” pic was likely over a week old, the MAGA mockery went quiet—much like Trump last week.
An avalanche of musings on Trump’s mortality hit social media over the weekend.
Google searches for “Is Trump dead?” and “Trump dead” skyrocketed on Friday night, along with “Trump health.”
“Trump is dead” and ”Trump died” were the top two trending topics on X early on Saturday morning.
