Over the weekend, Donald Trump, the man currently occupying the most powerful office on Earth, in case you needed any reminder, spread a deranged conspiracy theory claiming Joe Biden was executed in 2020 and replaced by a robot clone.
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I saw this post on one of my social feeds, and I didn’t believe it, so I checked, and it was sadly true. It's a repost from someone else, but it’s still absolutely unbelievable.
This weekend alone, as war escalated in Ukraine and Gaza, Trump's “big beautiful bill” came under attack in town halls in red districts, and it was reported that ICE had detained a congressional aide a few days ago, this is what the president of the United States wants Americans to focus on, Biden’s mental health.
But what he’s really doing is changing the subject with some bizarre sci-fi bedtime story ripped from a Reddit thread and soaked in QAnon Kool-Aid. A conspiracy theory only the equally wacko Laura Loomer would appreciate.
This is not just lunacy. It’s a deliberate political tactic. Trump peddles this madness to distract from the wreckage of his own presidency. It’s a desperate effort to shift the spotlight away from the authoritarian, un-American disasters piling up under his watch. Just last Wednesday, a congressional aide was arrested under the guise of immigration enforcement. Not a cartel leader. Not a violent criminal. A staffer working for Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler. In the congressman’s office.
This is what fascism looks like — when ICE in pseudo-MAGA hats pretends it’s keeping us safe.
Trump would rather feed the fever dreams of the internet than answer for the fact that the wars he said he’d end on day one are not only still active but more deadly than when he was sworn in. A deadly Israeli strike in Gaza that killed 32 civilians waiting for U.S.-backed food aid and the Ukrainian drone strikes deep in Russia that's been called “Russia’s Pearl Harbor" expose the growing crisis of wars he has utterly failed to mediate, end, or let alone control.
Remember when Trump said he'd end the wars on day one, or something like that? Just another fantastical thing Trump ranted about on Truth Social that bears no resemblance to reality.
And back home, the backlash continues to Trump’s House-passed legislation that takes from the poor and gives to the rich. At an Iowa town hall, Republican U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst dismissed constituents' fears over Medicaid cuts in Trump's "big beautiful bill" with a flippant "Well, we all are going to die.”
Just let me say here that I saw this on social media and also double-checked to make sure that it was true. And yes, as unbelievable as it may seem, she really said that.
It gets worse. She later doubled down by posting a sarcastic Instagram video from a graveyard, mocking their concerns and urging them to "embrace my lord and savior, Jesus Christ" for eternal life.
But let’s return to Trump’s Biden-bot theory. Where on Earth would a sitting president feel emboldened enough to amplify such a fantasy?
Enter CNN’s Jake Tapper, whose responsibility during the final years of Biden’s presidency was to report the facts about the president’s health. Instead, Tapper turned the decline of an aging public servant into a cash grab, selling his “original sin” as a tell-all book.
In doing so, he is fanning the flames of speculation, offering no clarity to the public, and now wonders why no one trusts journalism. His reward? Tanking ratings and the moral equivalent of tabloid shame.
Trump didn’t invent this lie from scratch. He just picked up where irresponsible media and cowardly press secretaries left off. White House mouthpiece Karoline Leavitt, for example, recently called Jill Biden “complicit” in her husband’s condition and smeared Joe Biden — now battling advanced prostate cancer — as mentally incompetent. Her venom is proof that cruelty, not truth, is the White House's guiding principle.
Biden, let’s remember, is no longer president. He is a private citizen, suffering through a grave illness with dignity and moral and mental clarity. He is no longer governing. Trump is. And for Trump to weaponize a grotesque fantasy about his predecessor being executed and replaced by a machine, without a shred of humanity or sanity, is beyond disgraceful.
The only person here who seems unwell is the one who can’t stop rage-posting conspiracy theories from his golf cart.
When a president openly promotes this idea about his predecessor, we get deeper into dangerous territory now, not just because of the lie itself, but because of what it says about the man spreading it. The world is watching, and while they’re laughing, they’re also panic-stricken.
We’re being governed by someone who is either completely untethered from reality or so manipulative that he’s willing to plunge the nation deeper into paranoia to distract from his own failures. All of that sounds too rational. Frankly, there is no rationalizing Trump anymore.
He’s mindlessly short-circuiting every norm, every truth, and every shred of American decency left in his path, and we’re not even at six months. Over the next four years, let’s hope that Trump is replaced somewhere along the way with a robot. We’d most certainly be in more capable hands.
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