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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Wednesday, a day after the United States dramatically escalated pressure on cartels with what it said was a targeted strike near Venezuela.Rubio is scheduled to hold talks with Sheinbaum at 10:00 am local time (1600 GMT) before a joint news conference with Foreign Secretary Juan Ramon de la Fuente, according to the US State Department.Few expect the United States, even under the mercurial President Donald Trump, to carry out a strike similar to Tuesday’s in the Caribbean on the soil of Mexico, where Sheinbaum has focused on cooperation in her country’s complicated relationship with Washington.But Tuesday’s attack, and occasional heated rhetoric by Trump’s allies against the United States’ southern neighbor, have been enough to raise alarm bells in Mexico.Sheinbaum, addressing reporters on Tuesday before the strike, said that any US military “intervention” in Mexico was a red line.Mexico will not “accept violations of our territory,” she said.”We don’t accept subordination. Simply collaboration between nations on equal terms.”Trump said that the United States killed 11 people when it blew up a speedboat in the Caribbean that was leaving Venezuela and was allegedly affiliated with Tren de Aragua, a gang designated by Washington as a terrorist organization.AFP has not been able to verify the number of people in the boat and their identities.The attack marked a major escalation of US action after Trump signed an executive order authorizing military action against drug cartels.Trump has “been very clear that he’s going to use the full power of America, the full might of the United States, to take on and eradicate these drug cartels, no matter where they’re operating from,” Rubio said Tuesday.But Venezuela is a unique case, as the United States does not recognize the legitimacy of President Nicolas Maduro, a leftist firebrand whose last election in 2024 was widely seen internationally and by the opposition as riddled with irregularities.Sheinbaum, who also comes from the political left, has sought a pragmatic relationship with Trump, who has voiced respect for her despite his past harsh comments about Mexicans.Like her predecessor and fellow leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Sheinbaum has largely cooperated with Trump in his key priority of curbing migration to the United States.Mexico has stepped up enforcement on its borders in recent years — including its own southern border, a gateway for Central American migrants to the United States.Sheinbaum has also taken steps to curb imports from China, whose manufacturers have eyed Mexico as a way into the US market.The Trump administration has already imposed a slew of new sanctions in hopes of weakening major cartels in Mexico.Trump blames the cartels for the flow of fentanyl, the powerful painkiller behind an overdose epidemic in the United States.Sheinbaum, in turn, has pursued legal action against US gunmakers over violence inside Mexico.Mexico, which has tighter controls on guns, says that between 200,000 and 750,000 weapons manufactured by US gunmakers are smuggled across the border from the United States every year, many of which are found at crime scenes.

President Donald Trump said US forces had attacked a boat carrying drugs to the United States Tuesday, killing 11 “narcoterrorists” from a gang he alleged was controlled by leftist Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.Trump posted a video online of an open-topped speedboat carrying a number of people traveling on a body of water before it exploded in a ball of flames. The move is a potentially significant escalation in the standoff between Caracas and Washington, after the United States deployed eight warships to Latin America in what it bills as a war on drug trafficking.Trump initially announced at the White House that US forces had “shot out a boat… a drug carrying boat, lots of drugs in that boat” without giving details.The Republican later posted a statement about the strike on his Truth Social network, along with the black and white video of the exploding boat.”Earlier this morning, on my Orders, U.S. Military Forces conducted a kinetic strike against positively identified Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists,” Trump said, without specifying the weapon used.”The strike occurred while the terrorists were at sea in International waters transporting illegal narcotics, heading to the United States. The strike resulted in 11 terrorists killed in action.”No US forces were harmed, Trump added.He went on to allege that Tren de Aragua — a Venezuelan group he has frequently referred to as part of his crackdown on undocumented migration — was “operating under the control of Nicolas Maduro.”The United States designated the gang a terrorist organization earlier this year.”Please let this serve as notice to anybody even thinking about bringing drugs into the United States of America. BEWARE!” Trump added in his post.AFP has not been able to verify the number of people in the boat and their identities.- ‘Full might’ -Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a vociferous critic of Maduro, vowed separately to keep using the “full might” of the United States to “eradicate” drug cartels.Trump has “been very clear that he’s going to use the full power of America, the full might of the United States, to take on and eradicate these drug cartels, no matter where they’re operating from,” Rubio told reporters as he left Miami for a visit to Mexico.Rubio earlier said on X that the vessel had “departed from Venezuela.”Venezuela’s Maduro has cast the recent US deployment as a threat to the country.There are currently eight US Navy ships involved in counter-narcotics efforts in Latin America: three amphibious assault ships, two destroyers, a cruiser and a littoral combat ship in the Caribbean and a destroyer in the eastern Pacific, a US defense official said Tuesday on condition of anonymity.The announcement of the strike followed days of mounting tension between Washington and Caracas, with Maduro declaring a state of “maximum readiness” to defend against what he says are US military threats.Maduro has been in Trump’s crosshairs since the Republican’s first term from 2017 to 2021.But the US president’s policy of maximum pressure, including an oil embargo, has failed to dislodge the Venezuelan leader from power.Washington has doubled to $50 million a bounty for the capture of Maduro, whose re-election in 2024 and 2018 were not recognized by the United States or much of the international community amid allegations of fraud and voter oppression.Analysts have told AFP that the deployment of the US warships was likely aimed at ramping up pressure on Maduro, who has repeatedly accused Trump of attempting to bring about regime change.Last week, Caracas petitioned the United Nations to intervene in the dispute by demanding “the immediate cessation of the US military deployment in the Caribbean.”And on Monday, Maduro said Venezuela was prepared for “a period of armed struggle in defense of the national territory” in case of an attack.Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said in a video message on Tuesday that the fall of the Maduro administration was “not far off” and that “Venezuela will soon be free.””With each passing day, the net cast by Western democrats over the narco-terrorist cartel… closes in,” she said in a video shown at a Venezuelan opposition event in Panama City.dk-wd-sct-hol/mtp

From manipulated images to out-of-context photos, false claims that Donald Trump is seriously ill — or even dead — have swirled online, with the misinformation persisting even after the US president publicly rejected it on Tuesday.At a White House press conference, Trump dismissed social media rumors about his health as “fake news,” following the 79-year-old’s noticeable absence from public appearances and press events last week.Since last Friday, there were around 104,000 mentions of the hashtag “Trump dead” on the Elon Musk-owned platform X, generating a cumulative 35.3 million views, according to an analysis from the misinformation watchdog NewsGuard.Some social media users cited online maps purportedly showing road closures near Maryland’s Walter Reed National Military Medical Center as evidence that Trump was being treated for a serious ailment at the facility.But there were no credible reports of road closures around the medical facility.Other social media users shared an image of an ambulance parked outside the White House, claiming it was taken last month and citing it as evidence of a health crisis involving Trump.It was actually an old photo posted by a journalist on X in April 2023 — while Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, was still in office, according to NewsGuard.Some users claiming that Trump was dead shared an out-of-context image of the White House flag flying at half-staff, a traditional gesture used to honor the death of a prominent official.In reality, Trump had issued a proclamation last week ordering flags at the White House, military posts, and naval stations across the country to be lowered in honor of the victims of a school shooting in Minneapolis.Some users also posted a zoomed-in image of Trump’s face, claiming it showed a deep line above his eye that indicated a recent stroke.But NewsGuard found that the original image was out-of-focus and showed no signs of a line over Trump’s eye. The image used in the false posts was digitally enhanced using an AI tool.The misinformation — which appeared to originate from liberal anti-Trump accounts on X, Bluesky, and Instagram — persisted even after Trump stated on Truth Social over the weekend: “NEVER FELT BETTER IN MY LIFE.”The falsehoods continued to circulate following Trump’s press conference on Tuesday, where he publicly dismissed the health rumors.Shortly after the conference, one Bluesky account falsely claimed that the “White House just announced” the president was dead.The falsehoods highlight how facts are increasingly under assault on a misinformation-filled internet landscape, an issue exacerbated by public distrust of institutions and traditional media.The health of US presidents has always been closely watched, but with the White House seeing its two oldest ever occupants since 2017 the scrutiny is now heavier than ever.Trump — the oldest man ever to be elected US president — has alleged that Democrats covered up the mental and physical decline of Biden, who was 82 when he left office in January.Biden’s health was a key issue in the 2024 election, and the then-president was forced to drop his campaign for a second term after a disastrous debate performance against Trump.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday opened a visit to Mexico which warned against violations of its sovereignty, as the United States said it carried out a deadly strike on a drug-smuggling boat from Venezuela.Rubio is paying the highest-ranking visit to the US neighbor since President Donald Trump returned to office in January with an agenda of cracking down on migration and drug cartels.Mexico so far has navigated the treacherous terrain with Trump, with President Claudia Sheinbaum seeking to avoid confrontation.Sheinbaum will meet Wednesday with Rubio, who was personally welcomed on the tarmac under overcast skies by Mexican Foreign Secretary Juan Ramon de la Fuente.But hours before Rubio’s arrival, Sheinbaum said she would draw a line on US military “intervention” in Mexico.”The United States is not going to act alone because there is an understanding,” she told reporters.”We have been working for months on an understanding to collaborate on security matters,” she said.Mexico will not “accept violations of our territory, we don’t accept subordination. Simply collaboration between nations on equal terms.”Trump said the United States killed 11 people Tuesday by destroying a speedboat allegedly from a gang linked to Venezuela’s leftist leader Nicolas Maduro.Rubio, speaking to reporters in Miami before departure, suggested it was not the last US attack and warned that the “days of acting with impunity” were over.Trump has “been very clear that he’s going to use the full power of America, the full might of the United States, to take on and eradicate these drug cartels, no matter where they’re operating from,” Rubio said.The United States does not recognize Maduro and few expect similar attacks on Mexican soil, even if some of Trump’s allies in Congress have mused of war.- Sheinbaum focuses on cooperation -Sheinbaum hails from Mexico’s left but has been able to earn the respect of Trump, much like her predecessor and ideological ally Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador did in Trump’s first term.Mexico has cooperated on enforcement of the border against US-bound migrants, who mostly come from Central America or elsewhere rather than Mexico, and extradited people wanted by the United States.She has also taken steps to curb imports from China, whose manufacturers have eyed Mexico as a way into the US market.”President Sheinbaum from the beginning decided that she is going to seek a cooperative and collaborative relationship” with the Trump administration, said Jason Marczak, vice president and senior director at the Atlantic Council’s Latin America Center.”She has been emphatic in defending Mexican sovereignty, but at the same time reaching out to the United States and seeing where they can work together,” he said.The stability in the relationship marks a sharp contrast to Trump’s pressure campaigns against the outspoken leftist leaders of two other Latin American powers, Brazil and Colombia.Trump earlier this year even took the uncharacteristic step of crediting her with an idea on combatting fentanyl, the painkilling drug behind an overdose epidemic in the United States.”I know everything, and I never learn anything from anybody, and I spoke to this woman, and as soon as she said it, I said, ‘Exactly, what a great idea,'” said Trump, who has also commented favorably on the appearance of Mexico’s first female president.Sheinbaum is riding high in polls with the support of three-quarters of Mexicans, in part over how she has managed Trump, who rose to political prominence vowing to erect a wall to seal off the Mexican border.The image of the United States has deteriorated more sharply in Mexico than in any other country since Trump returned, according to a Pew Research Center survey published in July, which found that 91 percent of Mexicans lacked confidence in Trump.

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday blamed AI for a viral video that appeared to show a black bag being thrown out of a White House window.Trump’s claim came despite US media earlier quoting a White House official as saying that a contractor had been disposing of trash during renovations.”No, that’s probably AI-generated,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when a reporter asked about the video. “Actually, you can’t open the windows. You know why, they’re all heavily armored and bulletproof.” Trump asked the journalist, Peter Doocy of Fox News, to show him the video.The brief clip that went viral over the weekend appears to show a black plastic bag being thrown out an open window on the second floor of the White House, where the private presidential residence is located.After Doocy approached the lectern and showed him, the 79-year-old said it was a “little bit scary” how realistic artificial intelligence-generated videos could be.But before Trump was asked about it, US media including the New York Times quoted the White House press office as saying that the video was real, although it showed nothing suspicious.Instead it showed a contractor doing “regular maintenance” while Trump was absent.The internet rumor was not the only one that Trump was forced to debunk on Tuesday — he also dismissed as “fake news” a series of social media-driven rumors about his health, including that he might even be dead.

A US judge on Tuesday rejected the government’s demand that Google sell its Chrome web browser as part of a major antitrust case, but imposed sweeping requirements to restore competition in online search.The landmark ruling came after Judge Amit Mehta found in August 2024 that Google illegally maintained monopolies in online search through exclusive distribution agreements worth billions of dollars annually.”Today’s decision recognizes how much the industry has changed through the advent of AI, which is giving people so many more ways to find information,” said Google vice president of regulatory affairs Lee-Anne Mulholland.”This underlines what we’ve been saying since this case was filed in 2020: Competition is intense and people can easily choose the services they want.”Mulholland added that Google has “concerns” about how court-imposed requirements to share search data and limit distribution of services will affect user privacy.Judge Mehta’s decision represents one of the most significant rulings against corporate monopoly practices in two decades and could fundamentally reshape the tech giant’s future.The Justice Department called the remedies “significant.””We will continue to review the opinion to consider the Department’s options and next steps regarding seeking additional relief,” Assistant Attorney General Abigail Slater said in a release.However, Tuesday’s decision fell short of expectations from some observers who had anticipated more radical changes to Google.”It sounds like the judge felt that it was too draconian to provide some of the remedies that prosecutors or the Department of Justice wanted,” said professor Carl Tobias of the University of Richmond Law School.”Google is certainly not going to be broken up, and it’s not clear that its business model is going to change a whole lot.”The US government had pushed for Chrome’s divestment, contending the browser serves as a crucial gateway to internet activity and facilitates a third of all Google web searches.But in his ruling, Mehta warned that a Chrome divestiture “would be incredibly messy and highly risky” and said US attorneys had overreached.The case focused on Google’s expensive distribution agreements, paying billions for Apple, Samsung, and other smartphone manufacturers to establish Google as the default search engine on iPhones and other devices.- ‘Crippling’ effects -In his decision last year, Judge Mehta said Google’s default status on the iPhone allowed the company to evolve into an internet powerhouse, insulated from competitive threats.But in a surprise move, Mehta on Tuesday said an outright ban of these deals was off the table, insisting that such a prohibition could have too profound an effect on other businesses.”Google will not be barred from making payments or offering other consideration to distribution partners for preloading or placement of Google Search, Chrome, or its GenAI products,” the judge wrote.Minutes after the decision, shares in Google parent Alphabet rocketed by 7.5 percent in after-hours trading. Apple’s stock rose by more than three percent.”This is a monster win for [Apple] and for Google it’s a home run ruling that removes a huge overhang on the stock,” said Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities.Under the judge’s order, Google must make available to “qualified competitors” search index data and user interaction information that rivals can use to improve their services.The ruling also specifically addresses the emerging threat from generative artificial intelligence chatbots like ChatGPT, extending restrictions to prevent Google from using exclusive deals to dominate the AI space as it did with traditional search.A technical committee will oversee implementation of the remedies, which take effect 60 days after the judgment is entered.- Offensive against Big Tech  -Google faces another legal case, awaiting a federal court decision in Virginia regarding its web display advertising technology business. A separate judge ruled earlier this year that Google’s ad tech operations also constitute an illegal monopoly that stifles competition.These cases are part of a broader government and bipartisan campaign against Big Tech. The US currently has five pending antitrust cases against major technology companies.The original search engine case against Google, along with a separate case targeting Meta, originated during the first Trump administration in 2020. The Biden administration maintained these prosecutions while launching additional cases against Apple and Amazon, as well as a second case challenging Google.

A US House of Representatives committee released a first batch of documents on Tuesday from the investigation into notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a case that has become a political lightning rod for the Trump administration.More than 33,000 pages of records related to Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell were uploaded to a House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform website after being handed over by the Justice Department.”We’re in the process of uploading those documents for full transparency so everyone in America can see those documents,” Republican committee chairman James Comer said.”It’s going as quick as we can get them uploaded,” Comer told reporters. “We want those to be public as soon as possible.”Epstein, a wealthy financier with high-level connections, died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial for alleged sex trafficking of underage girls recruited to provide him with sexual massages.President Donald Trump’s supporters have been obsessed with the Epstein case for years and held as an article of faith that “deep state” elites were protecting Epstein associates in the Democratic Party and Hollywood — but not Trump.Many of his supporters have been up in arms since the FBI and Justice Department said in July that Epstein had committed suicide, did not blackmail any prominent figures, and did not keep a “client list.”Comer’s committee had subpoenaed the Justice Department for the documents and a first batch of records was turned over last month.It was not immediately clear what is new in the documents released on Tuesday, some of which are completely redacted.Thousands of documents related to the Epstein probe have been released previously and Robert Garcia, the ranking Democrat on the House committee, said most of the records released on Tuesday had already been made public.- ‘Horrific’ -The House committee said in a statement that it expects to receive more records from the Justice Department and they are being redacted to protect “victim identities” and remove “any child sexual abuse material.”Trump was once a friend of Epstein and, according to The Wall Street Journal, the president’s name was among hundreds found during a Justice Department review of the Epstein files, though there has not been evidence of wrongdoing.The House Oversight Committee also heard closed-door testimony on Tuesday from victims of Epstein and Maxwell.”The stories were horrific and infuriating,” Garcia said on X. “In the days and weeks ahead we will be hearing more from these victims.”The Justice Department released a transcript and audio recording last month of an interview with Maxwell in which she said Trump was friendly with Epstein but was “never inappropriate with anybody.”Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for recruiting underage girls for Epstein, was interviewed by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, Trump’s former personal lawyer.The 63-year-old Maxwell, the only former Epstein associate convicted in connection with his activities, was moved from a prison in Florida to a minimum security facility in Texas following the interview with Blanche.

US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he will deploy National Guard troops to Chicago, calling the Democratic-run midwestern city a “hellhole” ravaged by gun crime.”We’re going in,” the Republican president told reporters, while hinting that he would also send soldiers to Baltimore, another Democratic-run city.Trump denied charges he is strictly targeting cities run by his political opponents for his anti-crime campaign and his crackdown on undocumented migrants.”I have an obligation,” he said, citing Chicago crime statistics. “This isn’t a political thing. I have an obligation when 20 people are killed over the last two and a half weeks and 75 are shot with bullets.”Trump, who already sent National Guard troops into the streets of Democratic-run Washington last month, declined to say exactly when he would send soldiers to Chicago, where the Democratic state governor and mayor strongly oppose the plan.”Chicago is a hellhole right now. Baltimore is a hellhole right now,” Trump said.Posting earlier on his Truth Social platform, the Republican president said he “will solve the crime problem (in Chicago) fast, just like I did in (Washington).””Chicago is the worst and most dangerous city in the World, by far,” he said, adding that JB Pritzker, the Democratic governor of the state of Illinois where Chicago is located, “needs help badly, he just doesn’t know it yet.”Trump followed up with a provocative, all-caps post: “CHICAGO IS THE MURDER CAPITAL OF THE WORLD!”Pritzker has clashed with Trump over the deployment, accusing the president of preparing “an invasion.””Chicago does not want troops on our streets,” the Democratic governor said at a press conference on Tuesday.”Crime is down in Chicago. Murders are down by almost 50 percent in the last four years,” he said.”None of this is about fighting crime or making Chicago safer,” Pritzker added. “For Trump, it’s about testing his power and producing a political drama to cover up for his corruption.”- President as police chief? -Trump ordered the deployment of the National Guard into Washington in August, and repeated his claims on Tuesday that it has improved city safety.”It’s now a safe zone,” he said. “We have no crime.”Thousands of National Guard troops and US Marines were deployed to Los Angeles in June to assist police as they cracked down on protests and unrest in the California city over Trump’s sweeps for undocumented migrants.On Tuesday, a federal judge declared that Trump effectively violated the law when he used troops in Democratic-run Los Angeles, and barred National Guard reservists or Marines from performing police functions including arrests or searches and seizures.District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco warned in his ruling that Trump appears intent on “creating a national police force with the President as its chief.”Breyer’s injunction, however, would only come into force on September 12, potentially leaving an opening for the conservative-majority Supreme Court to rule on the case.rotesters marched through parts of Chicago on Monday in a “Workers over Billionaires” rally that also saw people vocalize their opposition to Trump sending troops into the city.

US experts on Tuesday denounced a Trump administration climate report for reviving the tobacco-industry’s tactics to sow doubt around scientific consensus.In a 440-page rebuttal, 85 scientists accused the government of relying on a handful of contrarians who drew on discredited studies, misrepresented evidence, and bypassed peer review to reach pre-determined conclusions.The administration’s 150-page report, released on the Department of Energy’s website in late July, was intended to support its proposal to overturn the 2009 “Endangerment Finding” — the legal basis for numerous federal regulations of greenhouse gases.”This report makes a mockery of science,” said Andrew Dessler, a climate scientist at Texas A&M University and a co-author of the rebuttal.”It relies on ideas that were rejected long ago, supported by misrepresentations of the body of scientific knowledge, omissions of important facts, arm waving, anecdotes, and confirmation bias.”Entitled “A Critical Review of Impacts of Greenhouse Gas Emissions on the US Climate,” the DOE document made a series of startling and at times contradictory claims. These include that extreme weather events linked to emissions are not increasing, US temperatures are not rising, higher atmospheric carbon dioxide would boost agriculture, and solar activity could explain warming trends.- ‘Zombie arguments’ -The rebuttal marshals experts from multiple disciplines to challenge each assertion.”Just as the tobacco industry funded scientists to question the harms of smoking, the fossil fuel industry engaged in a coordinated campaign throughout the 1990’s to fund scientists willing to argue that it was the Sun, and not humans, causing the climate change observed up to that point,” said Ted Amur, a climate scientist at Aon Impact Forecasting, adding he was alarmed to see “zombie arguments” brought back.The DOE report claimed that the “Dust Bowl” years of 1930–1936 — among the nation’s hottest summers — disproved the reality of human-caused warming. But the counter report said this was deeply misleading, since poor land management at the time had turned the Great Plains into a desert-like wasteland that amplified the heat.On agriculture, the rebuttal notes that while elevated carbon dioxide can sometimes spur yields in isolation, rising heat and shifting rainfall patterns are expected to cause overall declines.The DOE report also downplays the threat of ocean acidification, claiming “life in the oceans evolved when the oceans were mildly acidic” billions of years ago. But the rebuttal counters this is “irrelevant” since complex life was not present during Earth’s early history.Ecologist Pamela McElwee of Rutgers University faulted the report for largely ignoring impacts on biodiversity despite the outsized social and economic consequences. “US coral reefs alone provide an estimated $1.8 billion in coastal protection from storms and floods annually,” she said.Since returning to office in January, President Donald Trump has gone far beyond the pro-fossil fuel agenda of his first term. Republicans recently passed the “Big Beautiful Bill,” gutting clean energy tax credits and opening sensitive areas to drilling.He has also withdrawn the United States from the Paris Agreement and is pressing his fossil fuel agenda abroad –requiring the EU to buy more US liquefied natural gas in a trade deal and pressuring the World Bank to scale back its climate focus, among other actions.

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday dismissed social media rumors that have swirled about his health — including that he had died — as “fake news” during a press conference at the White House.Trump did not schedule any public appearances or hold any press conferences for several days last week, a noticeable absence from the cameras for the publicity-loving 79-year-old.Combined with his age — he is the oldest person ever to be elected US president — and recent images of his bruised hand and swollen ankles, the quiet from the Oval Office ignited widespread speculation that something was seriously wrong with Trump’s health.Many users even suggested that the 45th and 47th US president may have passed away, and that the White House was covering it up.”Really? I didn’t see that,” the Republican said when a reporter on Tuesday asked him jokingly, “How did you find out over the weekend that you were dead?””That’s fake news,” he added as the reporter, Fox News’ Peter Doocy, told him of the speculation.Trump complained that he had done several news conferences last week “then I didn’t do any for two days and they said ‘there must be something wrong with him.'””It’s so fake. ‘Is he ok, how’s he feeling, what’s wrong?'”Trump, who began his second term in office in January, actually had no public events for six consecutive days before Tuesday’s press conference.But he was heard playing music in the Rose Garden on one of those days, and was then seen heading to play golf on three of them over the long US Labor Day weekend.”I was very active over the weekend,” Trump insisted.- Hand make-up -Trump’s right hand however appeared on Tuesday to be heavily made up, as it has on a number of recent occasions.The topic “#trumpdead” continued to trend on Tuesday on the X social network, owned by Trump’s former political ally Elon Musk.In July the White House said that discoloration on Trump’s right hand was “tissue irritation from frequent handshaking” and the use of aspirin as part of a standard cardiovascular treatment.It said his legs were swollen by chronic venous insufficiency, a common, benign vein condition.The condition involves damaged leg veins that fail to keep blood flowing properly.Presidential physician Sean Barbabella said Trump “remains in excellent health” despite the condition, in a letter released by the White House at the time.The billionaire frequently boasts of his good health and energy levels while the administration even posted an image depicting him as Superman.The health of US presidents has always been closely watched, but with the White House seeing its two oldest ever occupants since 2017 the scrutiny is now heavier than ever.Trump has alleged that Democrats covered up the mental and physical decline of his predecessor, Joe Biden, who was 82 when he left office in January.Biden’s health was a key issue in the 2024 election, and the then-president was forced to drop his campaign for a second term after a disastrous debate performance against Trump.