At the weekend, US President Donald Trump sparked a fresh outbreak of controversy when he posted on his own social media site a message that dishonestly claimed former President Joe Biden had passed away in 2020 and was replaced by copies.
The post, initially seen on Truth Social, read: "There is no Joe Biden - executed in 2020. Biden clones, doubles and robotic engineered soulless, mindless entities are what you see." It ended with a few hashtags and the claim that "Democrats don't know the difference."
Trump retweeted this assertion without making any personal comments, for which he was criticized online for popularizing a false conspiracy theory.
This tweet was one of a series of links Trump shared on Saturday night, several of which framed his efforts to increase American steel production. The post that advertised baseless claims regarding Biden's identity, however, attracted widespread attention and criticism.
This came on the heels of Trump publicly wishing his best to Biden after learning of the latter's cancer diagnosis.
"Melania and I are disappointed to learn of the recent medical diagnosis of Joe Biden," Trump wrote in a statement. "We wish Jill and the family our warmest and best regards, and we hope Joe has a quick and successful recovery."
Earlier, Trump referred to Biden's cancer diagnosis as "very sad," and also blamed former White House aides and Biden's family for not revealing the whole truth. Stunned at the timing of the announcement, the former president commented that it was surprising that the public had not been told earlier about Biden's health.
"I believe it's very sad, really. I'm surprised that it wasn't, you know -- that the public wasn't informed a long time ago," Trump said to reporters in an exchange in the Oval Office.
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