President Trump’s political success was derived in part by being omnipresent on every screen. So his recent absence from public view provoked all sorts of speculation – fed by social media algorithms that promoted conspiracy theories and complete nonsense to huge numbers of people.

President Donald Trump says social media conspiracies over his death were wrong. Asked if he had seen posts indicating he was no longer living, the president initially said "Really?

At an unrelated press conference, President Trump responded to a question about viral social media rumors over the weekend that he was "dead," after he went several days without public appearances.