President Donald Trump has again addressed rumors that he had died over the holiday weekend, telling reporters, “I’m still here,” ahead of a dinner with top tech CEOs minus his former “first buddy,” Elon Musk.
On Thursday night, Trump and First Lady Melania Trump, who earlier in the day hosted a meeting of the White House Task Force on Artificial Intelligence Education, were joined by the likes of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Microsoft founder Bill Gates for dinner in the State Dining Room of the White House.
Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman were also on the guest list, along with several other tech executives. Musk, the CEO of Tesla, who has his own AI company, xAI, had a public feud with Trump earlier this year after he departed from the White House as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency.
Before the dinner commenced the tech executives showered Trump and Melania with praise in front of the cameras. Trump thanked everyone, including the members of the press, saying, “They’ve been very nice lately.”
He then quipped, “Although I’m still here,” which was met with laughter.
“It made a couple of bad predictions. That was not good,” Trump said. “I went to an event, and people are coming up to me and saying, ‘You’re still here.’ I said, ‘What do they mean by that?’”
Trump was seemingly referring to rumors that he was dead or suffering from a serious health issue when he did not make a public appearance over the Labor Day weekend, aside from a brief sighting at his Virginia golf course Saturday.
When asked on Tuesday if he saw those rumors, he said he hadn’t and called them “fake news.”
“I was very active this Labor Day weekend,” he said. Trump had also taken to Truth Social late Sunday afternoon, writing, “NEVER FELT BETTER IN MY LIFE.”
After Trump’s remarks Thursday night, he took questions from reporters, one of which was about the jobs report expected to come out Friday.
Trump won’t commit to finding new jobs report credible
Trump fired Erika McEntarfer, the commissioner for the Bureau of Labor Statistics, saying, “We need accurate Jobs Numbers,” after July’s report showed the economy added only 73,000 jobs that month.
“A lot of people will be turning to you to see if you believe the data that’s released. Can you commit to saying the data will be credible?” the reporter asked. To which Trump said, “I don’t know.”
Trump calls RFK Jr. ‘very good person’ amid vaccine controversy
Another reporter asked Trump if he has “full confidence” in the job Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is doing.
Kennedy sparred with Democratic senators when testifying Thursday before the Senate Finance Committee about the mass exodus from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Kennedy’s recent actions on vaccines.
The Food and Drug Administration approved updated Covid-19 vaccines, but limited their use to seniors and younger adults and children with at least one high-risk health condition.
Susan Monarez, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was also recently ousted, over her refusal to support rescinding certain approvals for Covid-19 vaccines without consulting her advisers, according to The Washington Post.
At the hearing, Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, said, “You should resign.”
Ahead of the dinner Trump said, “I didn’t get to watch the hearings today, but he’s a very good person. And he means very well, and he’s got some little different ideas.” The president added, “But if you…look at this country…with regard to health, I like the fact that he’s different.”
Trump denies encouraging candidates to drop out of NYC mayoral race
There have been reports that the Trump administration may or has already been intervening in New York City’s mayoral race as the president has criticized frontrunner Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist.
“Are you urging or encouraging any candidates in the New York City Mayor’s race to drop out, to clear the field?” a reporter asked.
Trump said, “No, I don’t like to see a communist become mayor, I will tell you that. And I don’t think you can win unless you have one on one, because somehow he’s gotten a little bit of a lead,” adding, “I would like to see two people drop out and have it be one on one.”
Mamdani is up against Mayor Eric Adams and former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, both of whom are running as independents, and Republican Curtis Sliwa.
