Social media is once again questioning the authenticity of Donald Trump's public appearance after the US president stepped out of the White House for the first time in days.
The 79-year-old is no stranger to rebuffing outlandish rumours - pouring cold water on 'body double' conspiracies concerning his wife Melania Trump just a few months ago - but the newest observations doing the rounds on X (formerly Twitter) are tied to the fact people genuinely believe he's in terrible health, or even dead.
After the president called for reporters to meet him in the Oval Office today (September 2) off the back of a multi-day absence from the spotlight, paparazzi pictures of Trump in his current condition have only exacerbated a growing idea that he's about to resign from the job.
Reacting to a close-up shot of his puffy face, one X user wrote: "Maybe it’s just me, but that doesn’t look like Trump at all."
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"Lol that's not Trump that's his stunt double," claimed somebody else, while a third worried: "Okay maybe he is dying."
This isn't the first instance of the 'body double' hype gaining some traction either. In June, a group photograph featuring Trump at a NATO summit in the Netherlands caused a few raised eyebrows online as he looked smaller than usual stood beside his counterparts.
"Obviously not the real one. Not tall enough. Loved the people noting he's in multiple places at once," read a comment.
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"That... that is not Trump" and "When I saw a video from earlier today I was wondering why he was so much shorter," added two more users.
Despite the oddness of it all, the reasons why Trump might appear shorter are likely much less interesting; he's previously been listed as 6 feet 3 inches tall, weighing 224 pounds at his yearly physical.
In one picture, Trump is stood next to King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, who is reportedly 6ft 2 inches, and President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who is said to stand at just over 6 ft.
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And yet, the US leader appears slightly smaller than Willem-Alexander and only slightly taller than Erdogan when he should be bigger than both.
One explanation is that he's the same height he's always been, the only difference being that he's stood next to other tall-ish men, making him seem shorter. Other sceptics of the conspiracy theory highlighted the fact Trump's footwear could contribute to slight elevations or reductions in height, or it's a posture thing.
Meanwhile, Trump was quick to rubbish rumours that he'd passed away via Truth Social just recently, posting the typically defiant statement: "NEVER FELT BETTER IN MY LIFE. Also, DC IS A CRIME FREE ZONE! President DJT".
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This was in response to a MAGA supporter who'd written: "Joe Biden would go multiple days at a time without any public appearances and the media would say he’s 'sharp' and 'top of his game'. Meanwhile he was wearing diapers and napping. President Trump puts in more public work hours than any other POTUS in US history, and media freaks out if he disappears for 24 hours. Comical double standard."
Vice-president JD Vance hasn't necessarily been helping the matter though, having told USA Today that he'd be happy to step in if anything catastrophic happened to his boss.
"I've had a lot of on-the-job training in the last 200 days, but the president is in incredibly good health. He's got incredible energy," he said.
"While most of the people who work around the president of the United States are younger than he is, I think that we find that he's actually the last person to go to sleep, he's the last person making phone calls at night, and he's the first person who wakes up and is the first person making phone calls in the morning."
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UNILAD has reached out to the White House for comment.
Topics: Donald Trump, Politics, Social Media, US News, Conspiracy Theories, Health
Dan Seddon