US President Donald Trump has stirred controversy once again, this time by reposting a wild conspiracy theory that claims President Joe Biden was “executed” in 2020 and replaced by clones.
On Saturday night, Trump shared a message from a supporter on his Truth Social platform. The post read, “There is no #JoeBiden – executed in 2020. #Biden clones double & robotic engineered soulless mindless entities are what you see. Democrats dont know the difference.”
The report has thrust Biden into a bizarre category of public figures accused of being secretly replaced, a list that already includes pop stars like Paul McCartney and Avril Lavigne.
Biden is far from the first to be caught up in this type of speculation. Conspiracy theories about celebrities being replaced after their death have circulated for decades. Rumours about Paul McCartney’s supposed death have lingered since 1969, and Avril Lavigne has faced similar claims since the early 2000s.
Even Melania Trump, the former First Lady, was at the centre of such theories during Trump’s first term. Claims that a body double had replaced her became so widespread that the White House issued an official statement dismissing the idea as a “non-story.”
Supporters push fringe claims with photos and ‘proof’
Following Trump’s report, supporters flooded the replies with memes and supposed evidence to back the outlandish claim.
Some users pointed out that Biden’s eye colour had allegedly changed after 2020. Others claimed that his ear lobes had gone from being unattached to attached, offering this as “proof” that the real Biden had been swapped with a double. Several people even claimed to have spotted differences in his signature or used side-by-side photos from different decades to support their argument.
A few went further, suggesting that Biden had been “executed by a military tribunal” and replaced by “robotic entities.”
Trump’s conspiracy-laden weekend continues
The clone theory wasn’t the only conspiracy Trump pushed over the weekend. On Friday night, he reposted another claim accusing CBS of hiding footage from his 2015 appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. In reality, the segment is freely available on YouTube.
This comes at a time when Biden is under scrutiny for his age and health, especially after recently revealing he had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer. The diagnosis sparked further backlash from the MAGA camp, with some, including Trump, calling for an investigation into Biden’s White House doctor. Critics allege the doctor gave Trump a clean bill of health in July despite concerns.