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Is Donald Trump dead? That is the question countless Americans asked themselves (and each other) last week when the publicity-hogging president stayed out of the public eye for a few days.

Even in a world in which the Internet allows conspiracy theories to thrive, and random weirdos can make unsubstantiated claims about birth certificates, chemtrails, or Trump being an FBI informant trying to take down Jeffrey Epstein’s child sex trafficking network, one would have to be pretty naïve to believe that the White House was keeping it a secret that the president had died. 

Sure, Trump is clearly ageing, his doctors are notorious for lying about his health (to an, at times, comical degree), and he has been seen with bruises and/or makeup on his hands that stem from some kind of health problem (or vigorous handshaking, according to the White House). 

It also didn’t help that the president posted about a supposed golf outing with Jon Gruden during his public absence that showed the former NFL coach sporting the same outfit that he wore when the two had golfed a week earlier.

But, still, explaining Trump’s absence with his death is patently ridiculous.  

Of course, everything is patently ridiculous these days, so it was hardly surprising that the Internet rumor mill started churning and hashtags like #TrumpIsDead began trending. 

How many of the people using them genuinely believed that the president had died, how many just derived a sardonic (and a bit morbid) pleasure from Trump becoming the target of the kind of conspiracy theory that he frequently starts or amplifies, and how many Internet users fell victim to “news” sites peddling clickbait stories to make a buck? 

We don’t know, and it doesn’t matter. 

However, the past week does pose some real and serious questions that have to be answered. 

First of all, what was Trump up to while he hid from the public and the press? 

It certainly seems as though the self-proclaimed “most transparent administration in history” is hiding something.

Did Trump have some kind of medical procedure? Did he have COVID? A mini stroke? A more serious case of handshakeitis? 

Whatever it was that kept the president out of the public eye, the White House clearly doesn’t want Americans to know.

But they deserve some answers, especially after going through something similar during the past administration, which went to great lengths to conceal Joe Biden’s decline. 

Ironically, it was that deceit, and the belief that Kamala Harris must have been in on it, that probably earned Trump some votes in last year’s election.  

And, just like then, the White House press corps is failing the American people.

Finding out what Trump was doing during the week in question, and then informing the public (now, and not in some book that will be published in a few years) is their job.

However, and this also worked to Biden’s advantage (up until it didn’t), the media is loathe to report on the health issues of public officials. 

But those are legitimate topics.

Trump is the oldest person to swear the oath of office and he is visibly declining – both physically and mentally.

And, since you can’t believe anything this administration tells the American people, it is up to the journalists spending all day around Trump to ask these questions and sound the alarm.

Publishing photos of the president’s hand and parroting press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s explanation for the bruise and makeup isn’t good enough.

Especially in light of the experience with Biden, the press should relentlessly keep asking questions about where Trump was and what he did. 

And reporters shouldn’t be shy about it. Pressing an issue when they know they are being lied to or stonewalled is a key part of the job. 

So is observing their surroundings and then reporting what they see. 

For example, writing that Trump can’t remember the names of people he interacts with all the time or that he has trouble walking in a straight line provides a service to readers. 

By the way, the same applies to the congressional press corps and lawmakers like Eleanor Holmes Norton, the 88-year-old delegate from Washington, DC, who vowed this week to run for another term next year even though she clearly isn’t up to the demands of the work. 

Having worked on Capitol Hill, we can assure you that reporters know very well which lawmakers are no longer up to the job, and keeping that information from their audiences is a dereliction of duty.

If the journalists covering Biden had been more honest, there is a chance the country would be much better off. And the same goes now for those covering Trump.

In the case of the current occupant of the White House, that especially means his mental health. 

Of all of the media failures related to Trump, this may be the worst.

Yes, whatever physical ailments the president suffers from is news.

However, even if it is a condition much more serious than the chronic venous insufficiency that the White House has admitted to, it pales in comparison to Trump’s various mental illnesses. 

If, for example, malignant narcissism were categorized like cancer, then the president would be suffering from a Stage 4 case.

And, instead of valiantly but foolishly trying to fact-check Trump, it would be much better to explain to audiences that he is a compulsive liar and anything he says should be taken with a ton of salt.

In other words, the president is neither physically nor mentally well, and the American people deserve to know that.

However, instead of being open and honest about these things, the media is keeping quiet… perhaps to comply with norms that have long been shattered or to preserve their access for the “tell all” book that will fund their retirement. 

To that we say: Shame on them!

Like so many others, too many journalists in the nation’s capital do not seem to understand the gravity of the situation – or that they are in a position to do something about it.

All they would have to do is their jobs.