Former White House press secretary Jen Psaki peddled conspiracy theories about President Donald Trump’s health after he went about a week without an official event.
“He had been basically absent from the public eye since last Tuesday,” Psaki said on MSNBC’s The Briefing. She claimed Trump was “hiding,” and added, “We may never know why Donald Trump suddenly spent a week hiding entirely from the American public.”
Psaki was amplifying wild online rumors that Trump was secretly ill—or even dead. The president, however, brushed off the nonsense, telling reporters he was “very active over the weekend.” In reality, Trump continues to engage with the press more often than any modern president.
By the end of June 2024, Joe Biden had managed only 168 press conferences. Trump, by contrast, spoke to reporters 129 times in his first 100 days of his second term—far outpacing Biden, according to presidential scholar Martha Joynt Kumar.
Psaki’s shift is glaring. As Biden’s press secretary, she dismissed every concern about his cognitive decline, insisting he was so sharp that “he’s hard to keep up with.” Now, she spins baseless theories about Trump to distract from Biden’s record of ducking the press.
“You really can’t make this stuff up sometimes,” Psaki said. She’s right—but she certainly tries.
