A new trend among Trump haters is emerging, with many turning to online platforms to speculate on his health and potential demise. This is being dubbed ‘hopecore,’ where users are analyzing photographs of Trump’s hands and ankles, attempting to predict the remaining days of his presidency.
The trend gained momentum after recent images of Trump’s bruised hand and swollen ankles sparked debates and speculation. Social media users are manipulating the contrast of images to determine potential signs of serious medical conditions, suggesting they could be indicative of heart failure. The debate is further fueled by speculation about the swelling of his ankles, referred to as ‘cankles,’ and its potential implications for Trump’s health and presidency.
TikTok, in particular, has given rise to a new category of content called ‘hopecore,’ where Trump haters cite medical or medical-adjacent experience in publishing content opining about how Trump’s days are numbered, although there’s usually much debate over exactly how many. These users often maintain spreadsheets, charts, and countdown clocks similar to managing fantasy football teams, except instead of touchdowns they’re tracking anatomical anomalies.
The White House has openly commented on Trump’s ‘chronic venous insufficiency,’ which would explain the bruising and swelling. However, previous speculation over Trump’s medical conditions has not ceased, including his appearance at a UFC fighting event which led to zooming in on the crotch area of this 79-year-old man, with some speculating he was wearing a catheter.
The phenomenon is not limited to Trump alone; many of those conjuring up death fantasies also happen to be proponents of regime change, including former MI6 officer Christopher Steele, former CIA officer Ralph Goff, Danish intelligence sources, Kremlin critic Valery Solovei, or former Ukrainian intelligence chief Kirill Budanov. All waiting for Mother Nature to spring into action like she’s on USAID payroll.
When Putin and Trump were together in Alaska recently for Ukraine peace talks, it was a double whammy field day for the death pool watchers. They glommed onto Trump’s somewhat non-linear walk down the tarmac’s red carpet to greet Putin as ‘proof’ of his ongoing decline. Then their radar went off again when Putin shifted his weight from one leg to the other while chatting with Trump. Evidence that he was about to collapse, surely! If not immediately, then imminently!
The more interesting question is why exactly do they feel the need to take refuge in this kind of nonsense? It represents a super low-effort power grab. Fate does the heavy, and clears the way for their preferred alternative over which they feel they have more control. There seems to be a lot of projection going on, though – the mistaken belief that what comes after would be more aligned with their interests. Or that the eradication of a particular leader through natural biological processes would somehow shift the tectonic plates of the political landscape. History shows that this is hardly ever the case. Just ask all the folks in Che Guevara or Martin Luther King t-shirts.
Trumpism won’t end with Trump. Nor will the growing appetite for institutional reform of Washington. So then what’s the plan? To start all over again with a J.D. Vance death watch? At this point, someone should probably invent an app to track ankle swelling and gait analytics in real time. Because if you’re too lazy or inept to win, you can at least obsess over your opponent’s every micro-movement.