For once, Donald Trump finds himself mired in a conspiracy theory that's not of his own making.
It's all thanks to a (reportedly) unscheduled trip Trump made to Walter Reed Hospital on Saturday for a medical exam. Of course, any time a president makes an unannounced trip to a hospital, it's cause for concern.
White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham denied anything was wrong and said that Trump was simply taking advantage of a light work day (LOL) to take care of an exam. Her insistence reached comical levels when she appeared on Jeanine Pirro's Fox News show on Saturday night.
Good luck to anyone who can listen to this exchange with a straight face.
Grisham: "He has more energy than anybody in the White House. That man works from 6 a.m. until very, very late at night."
Pirro: "He's almost super human."
Anyway, just after midnight on Sunday morning, Trump himself tweeted that all is perfectly fine and he was simply conducting part of his annual physical.
Visited a great family of a young man under major surgery at the amazing Walter Reed Medical Center. Those are truly some of the best doctors anywhere in the world. Also began phase one of my yearly physical. Everything very good (great!). Will complete next year.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 17, 2019
One theme that emerged on Twitter with regards to Trump's visit: the Grinch.
But there was something much bigger afloat. The man who has thrown out a range of conspiracy theories, from the racist Obama birther claims to suggesting Sen. Ted Cruz's father was involved with the JFK assassination, was suddenly the subject of a big conspiracy theory on Far Left Twitter.
One theory goes that Trump's visit to Walter Reed was simply a ruse to raise concerns about his health so that he might eventually resign due to "health reasons" and spare himself the shame of impeachment.
There are a lot of reasons this theory is very, very, very unlikely, not the least of which is the fact it's currently unlikely the U.S. Senate and its GOP majority would actually vote to convict Trump on any impeachment charges. But when it comes to these kind of BS conspiracies, ruminating on outlandish theories is a bipartisan product.
Interestingly enough, by Sunday morning there was a completely different theory floating around: that Trump's visit was legit and due to chest pains. That particular theory got life thanks to a tweet from Andrew Vernon, who's an op-ed contributor to The Hill.
#BreakingNews Sources tell me from Walter Reed the President was being checked out for chest discomfort. No other information is available at this time.
— Andrew Vernon (@VernonAndrewJ) November 17, 2019
This theory picked up traction after it was published online on the website Heavy but without any corroborating evidence which, as we all know, is generally not grounds for believing, well, anything.
And, of course, there is the tried-and-true theory that it's all just another distraction to get us talking about anything other than the ongoing impeachment inquiry.
There is absolutely no reason to believe any of these theories are true, and to believe anything other than (deep sigh) what the White House says.
The trip to Walter Reed and the sudden spread of these theories certainly reflects the nature with which those who oppose Trump are willing to cling to any scrap of information and twist and contort it so that it fits their own hopeful narrative of him leaving office.
But the spread of these theories is also the byproduct of Trump's own behavior. Twitter is, as I've said before, still a Hellscape that has allowed Trump to peddle lies and his own conspiracy theories, all without any pushback. If Trump doesn't like the tin foil hat, "I'm just asking questions, man" nature of these theories, he only has himself to blame.
And Grisham and the rest of the White House press team have no one else to blame but themselves. It's not just the ridiculous, Soviet-era state media level rhetoric of the Great Supreme Leader. It's also the complete lack of transparency that comes from the White House.
We're over eight months removed from then-press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders' last official White House press briefing. Since taking over from Sanders, Grisham has done nothing to dispel the air of obfuscation that's been with the Trump White House since its early tantrums over inauguration crowds and "alternative facts."
There is absolutely no reason to believe any of the theories floating around Twitter right now. But whatever mess the White House finds itself in is one of their own making.
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