President posts NEVER FELT BETTER amid Labor Day death rumors; the rumors started because nobody could find him.

Pay attention. Labor Day. Long weekend. The country grills, the country drinks, the country watches a parade. The country also, this year, spent forty-eight hours on the social network app X under the hashtag WhereIsTrump. The hashtag was up there with TrumpIsDead. Both of them. Real-time. Trending.

Why? Because the man’s official public schedule went blank. Because nobody had seen him in a few days. Because a viral video popped up Friday night with a narrator reading from a script that asked, in serious news anchor voice, what if something has happened to the President of the United States.

Buddy. Two things. Two.

Problem one. The rumors were not true. Nobody had any reason to believe the man was anything other than alive and on a long weekend. The fact-checkers checked. PolitiFact, Poynter, WRAL. They all came back the same: nothing was suspended, nothing was hidden, the schedule was a Labor Day weekend schedule. Light, like everybody’s.

Problem two. The rumors trended anyway. They trended because the press shop does not have credibility anymore. The man went on Truth Social and posted 128 times in seven days. One hundred twenty-eight. Including, on Sunday afternoon, NEVER FELT BETTER IN MY LIFE. In all caps. In the way you announce something when nobody asked.

I have run a casino floor. When the pit boss is fine, the pit boss does not need to walk by every five minutes saying I’m fine. The pit boss is just there. The pit boss is at the rail. The pit boss is visible.

The job of the President includes being visible. The job includes being on a stage every couple of days. The job includes letting the country see you in a moving car, on a podium, behind a desk, on a Tuesday. You do not need to be on Truth Social typing in caps lock. You need to be at the rail.

I’m arguing with the television. The television trended a hashtag.