Did the White House suddenly suspend President Trump's official schedule on August 27, 28, and 29, sparking speculation that "something extremely serious may have happened" to Trump? No, that's not true: Speculation about Trump's health was viral on social platforms on Friday, August 27, with false claims that Trump's schedule was canceled without explanation, but those rumors were false. Lead Stories is a member of the White House Correspondents Association and our editors are routinely emailed the President's schedule in advance. The schedules for that Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were never revised. A viral video making the claim used a fake voice and an AI-detection tool concluded with 100% confidence it was written by AI.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) post on the @breakingnews_usa1 account on TikTok on August 30, 2025. The caption on the video read "Attention! Explosive rumors are shaking the United States!" The narration, read by an AI clone of MSNBC host Ari Melber's voice:
In the past few hours, speculation suggesting that something extremely serious may have happened to President Donald Trump. It all began when the president's official schedule was suddenly suspended without any convincing explanation, sparking doubts about his true state of health.
This is what the post looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: screenshot of TikTok by Lead Stories)
@breakingnews_usa1 #breakingnews #usa #donaldtrump #news ♬ original sound - Breaking News
The narration continued:
Trump, who was recently diagnosed with a delicate vascular condition, had already shown signs of fragility in public appearances. Now the situation has grown even more mysterious. All official commitments have been canceled, and the White House website has stopped displaying future events, fueling suspicions that key information may be hidden from the public. So far no medical updates or official statements have been released. This absolute silence, instead of calming concerns, has only intensified a wave of speculation across social media, where millions are asking what might really be happening behind the scenes of power. The unavoidable question now echoes everywhere. Is Donald Trump still fully in command or is the nation facing an unprecedented crisis being kept in the shadows?
Lead Stories submitted the narration text to the GPTZero AI Detection tool, which concluded it was 100% AI made.
The last days of August, leading to a three-day Labor Day weekend, are historically slow in Washington, D.C. Congress is on its August recess and presidents are known to ease off on their public schedules.
A review of the presidential schedules sent to Lead Stories by the White House press office from Tuesday through Thursday night showed no changes from what we know the president did on those days.
From an email sent Tuesday evening titled "DAILY GUIDANCE AND PRESS SCHEDULE FOR WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 27, 2025":
(Source: screenshot of White House email by Lead Stories)
No changes were announced for Wednesday.
From an email sent Wednesday evening titled "DAILY GUIDANCE AND PRESS SCHEDULE FOR THURSDAY, AUGUST 28, 2025":
(Source: screenshot of White House email by Lead Stories)
Trump, as scheduled, signed several executive orders in the Oval Office Thursday afternoon. You can read them on the White House website here (archived here), here (archived here), here (archived here), and here (archived here).
From an email sent Thursday evening titled "DAILY GUIDANCE AND PRESS SCHEDULE FOR FRIDAY, AUGUST 29, 2025":
(Source: screenshot of White House email by Lead Stories)
No changes were announced for Friday.
The weekend schedule, emailed Friday evening, listed no public events for Saturday. In fact, President Trump was seen golfing at his Virginia golf course Saturday morning.
The video was edited with still images of Trump with a voice-over by the fake Melber voice. Lead Stories reviewed the full Friday night, August 29, 2025, edition of The Beat With Ari Melber (archived here). It did not include the segment in the TikTok video.
Most of the 38 videos on @breakingnews_usa1 TikTok account (archived here) at the time of writing are focused on false claims about Trump's health or other misfortunes, using a fake version of Ari Melber's voice.
(Source: screenshot of TikTok by Lead Stories)
