In late August 2025, ahead of Labor Day weekend in the U.S., a claim circulated (archived) online that U.S. President Donald Trump had died.
The claim gained traction (archived) across the weekend, even as Getty Images, a reputable picture agency, posted pictures of Trump golfing on Aug. 30 and 31.
One TikTok post with more than 60,000 likes at the time of this writing was captioned, "Donald trump has passed away."
The claim also circulated on Facebook (archived), Threads (archived) and Bluesky (archived), though some users (archived, archived) did point out that claims were unverified. Snopes readers wrote in to ask if the claim was true.
However, we found no evidence that Trump died over Labor Day weekend 2025 — a hugely newsworthy story that media outlets worldwide would have reported on if true (archived, archived, archived, archived)
We reached out to the White House to ask for comment on the rumor and await a reply.
Golf photos, social posts claimed proof of life
Before Sept. 2, Trump's most recent public appearance was at a live-streamed cabinet meeting on Aug. 26, the day before claims about his alleged death began to circulate.
The president then signed executive orders on Aug. 28, though Snopes found no pictures or video of Trump from this event. That same day, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump would make a statement about Russian strikes in Ukraine. No such announcement appeared to materialize.
Despite the lack of appearances on Aug. 28, images from Getty Images then showed Trump alive and golfing on Aug. 30 and 31.
Trump posted on Truth Social throughout the period of his alleged death, including posts on Aug. 31 that read (archived), "NEVER FELT BETTER IN MY LIFE," and showed the president playing golf (archived) with former NFL football coach Jon Gruden. At least one White House aide has reportedly helped Trump craft or write social media posts in the past, although, according to reports, Trump was still highly involved in posting on his social media accounts.
However, social media users raised questions over the reported dates of the photo of Trump and Gruden, who one user claimed posted (archived, archived) a picture of himself wearing the same outfit at the same course a week prior, on Aug. 23.
Some users also questioned the dates of press photos of Trump golfing over Labor Day weekend, including one that Getty Images said was taken on Aug. 30, claiming (archived) they actually showed the president golfing in 2019.
Health claims, Vance interview spurred death rumors
Claims that Trump had allegedly died circulated days after a separate, unfounded prediction that the president had "six to eight months" left to live. That claim circulated starting Aug. 23.
The claims also circulated around the same time as Vice President JD Vance gave an interview to USA Today during which he said that if there was a "terrible tragedy" he had "gotten a lot of good on-the-job training over the last 200 days," referring to his time in the Trump administration.
In that same interview, Vance said Trump was in "incredibly good health."
Snopes has previously investigated pictures showing bruises or sores on President Trump's hands which were also the focus of the unfounded rumor that the president had six to eight months left to live.