U.S. President Donald Trump listens to a question during an event to announce that the Space Force Command will move from Colorado to Alabama, in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., September 2, 2025. REUTERS/Brian Snyder
CNN's Kristen Holmes reacted with some bewildered amusement over President Donald Trump's reaction to press questions about his health over the last few days, following the flare-up across the internet of conspiracy theories that he was dead or dying.
"Kristen, I thought it was notable that the first question the president was asked was about his absence over the last few days," said anchor Boris Sanchez. "He had only done one interview with a conservative-leaning outlet. We've seen him load up onto the SUV and go golfing in his club in Virginia. But kind of unusual for President Trump, he didn't make quite as many public appearances. And that led a reporter in the room to ask him when he found out that he was dead, because of some online chatter about the president's health. The president flipping that, turning that into a joke about his predecessor."
"Yeah," said Holmes. "But I will say it was kind of an awkward moment when he asked about, 'When did you find out you were dead?' Usually, you know, we hear those kinds of questions, but it seemed as though Trump was a little bit confused as to what the question actually was."
"Now, he denied that he had heard any of the conspiracy theories that he was actually dead," Holmes continued. "He instead said he had seen that people were concerned. They were asking about his health, and he knew that he had been very busy behind the scenes. He talked about how this was a long weekend, how he played golf. He said he wrote prolific posts on Truth Social, that he was very busy, that he did an interview for over an hour and a half."
"And one of the things, of course, that we had been reporting on was this conspiracy theory around his health and whether or not the White House was going to push back on it," said Holmes. "And we had just heard from the White House right before President Trump started taking questions, pushing back on this notion that President Trump had any kind of illness."
Now, one of the things that we had seen people pointing to was a bruise on the back of his hand, which you could see while he was sitting there taking questions," she added. "We had spoken to a number of sources who told us that that bruising actually has started well before he took office. They pushed back on the idea that this was something new. They said that it's because of aspirin and the fact that he has done multiple things with his hands. Actually, one source giving me an anecdote about how his skin is so thin that at one point when he was shaking hands, it ripped open on the campaign trail. So they're very much clearly pushing back on this notion that there's a health issue."
Watch the video below or at the link here.