Donald Trump has made his first public announcement in around a week, but it wasn’t anything to do with his health - instead, he announced that the headquarters of Space Command will move from Colorado to Alabama.
The US President hadn’t been seen in person for some time, although rumors of his death were greatly exaggerated and later proven to be false.
Instead, Trump was revealed to have been playing golf over the Labor Day weekend, and has now returned to his desk, starting with an ‘exciting’ announcement about the Department of Defence.
Trump makes a major announcement in the Oval Office
Even by Trump's standards, this announcement was a strange one, with the seemingly benign nature of the announcement contrasting with the context in which it was presented.
In this speech, Trump had to simultaneously confirm that he's still alive and running the country, and also announce a change to the company's defense strategy.
Speaking from behind his desk, the President said:
“I am thrilled to report that the US Space Command Headquarters will move to the beautiful locale of a place called Huntsville, Alabama, forever to be known from this point forward as Rocket City,” Mr Trump said from the Oval Office.
“We had a lot of competition for this, and Alabama is getting it, Huntsville in particular.”
But, this announcement is arguably more significant as it comes after the speculation around Trump’s health hit fever pitch over the weekend, including ‘Trump Is Dead’ trending on social media.
The announcement comes after days of rumors about Trump’s health
Before the announcement, the White House had only released the time and location of the Oval Office speech, but speculation had swirled around Trump’s health for some time.
He was diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency in July, and rumors of his death even surfaced last weekend, although they were unsubstantiated and later proven false by Trump himself.
The rumors were further fuelled by comments made by Vice President JD Vance, who said that he would be ready to assume the presidency in the event of a 'terrible tragedy'.
It was reported that Trump’s absence from the spotlight was because he was on a long Labor Day golfing weekend.
In total, he went a week without making a media appearance.
On Tuesday morning, Trump aides confirmed that the president would not be announcing retirement or making an announcement about his health.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said: “The President will be making an exciting announcement related to the Department of Defense.”
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Trump had previously spoken about renaming the state department, stating last Monday: “It used to be called the Department of War and it had a stronger sound,
“We want defense, but we want offense too...
“As Department of War we won everything, we won everything and I think we're going to have to go back to that.”