- Slate, Heather Cox Richardson, and Robert Reich on Trump’s AI video about “medbeds”; Reich explicitly links it to Trump’s dementia;
- Short items about the Michigan mass shooter, government enforcement of Turning Point Clubs; tariffs on foreign-made movies; and banning the phrase “climate change” in the Energy Department.
Apparently this “medbed” fantasy is more significant than I thought, yesterday. It comes up today in three of my daily reads.
Slate, Molly Olmstead, 29 Sept 2025: Trump Just Promoted One of the Nation’s Cruelest Conspiracy Theories, subtitle “Why did the president post and delete a fake video of himself promising a miracle? Let’s get into it.”
The writer opens:
Over the weekend, the president of the United States posted an A.I.-generated video of himself making a major announcement. The post, which was made on TruthSocial, prompted an online furor among those familiar with conspiracy theories, because it promoted a particularly fringe one, even by the standards of an administration that has pushed anti-vaccine paranoia onto the public and advanced widespread falsehoods about a presidential election. The theory, which revolves around something called a “medbed,” is pulled from the strangest, most paranoid corners of the conspiracy world—not something one of the most powerful world leaders should be tapped into. Let’s get into it.
Then she goes step by step through the story: what exactly happened? what did the video say? what’s a medbed? And so on. A sample.
OK, then. What is a medbed?
To be abundantly clear, medbeds are not real. But per the conspiracy theory, a medbed is a kind of extremely advanced technology capable of healing the human body of literally everything, including natural aging. They’re often thought of as pods of some kind. In the telling of the conspiracy theory, it may have an alien origin or a mystical origin or just be breathtakingly advanced science. A medbed has no limits to what it can do.
My goodness. Where does that come from?
Mostly, it comes from the QAnon world. For years, Q influencers have hyped it as a way to promise a kind of golden future on the other side of their revolution. Medbeds are one of the many exciting promises that were supposed to come after the Storm, the long-promised mass roundup of the evil cabal members at the center of the QAnon conspiracy theories. At times, medbeds have also been useful for connected conspiracy theories, explaining how some figure—an assassinated John F. Kennedy, for example—who should have died long ago is still alive.
And how it’s related to QAnon. And how the video may cause sick people real harm.
Trump deleted the video, limiting its harm to some degree, but some will choose to see the deletion not as a retraction but as part of the secret form of communication he uses for his most devoted followers. Trump has a huge audience, and he’s a near-messianic figure for some of these people; even if the medbed post was meant as a joke—and nothing he has said or written has indicated it was—people will almost certainly latch onto this post as a coded message, telling them to turn away from the corrupt medical community and hold out for something better. For people facing life-threatening illnesses, such false hope can be deadly.
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Heather Cox Richardson gives the story the lead in her daily news blog. She summarizes, with only the faintest editorialization.
Letters from an American: 28 Sept 2025
Late last night, President Donald J. Trump shared on social media a deep fake video that appeared to be a clip from his daughter-in-law Lara Trump’s Fox News talk show My View. In the video’s split screen, Lara Trump, on the left, says: “President Donald J. Trump has announced a historic new healthcare system, the launch of America’s first MedBed hospitals and a national MedBed card for every citizen.” As she speaks, the video shows a building with the caption: “MEDBED HOSPITALS: THE NEW ERA IN HEALTHCARE.”
Then the video shows a clip of Trump saying: “Every American will soon receive their own MedBed card.” As the video shows what looks like a futuristic hospital, complete with what appear to be podlike beds, he continues: “With it, you’ll have guaranteed access to our new hospitals led by the top doctors in the nation, equipped with the most advanced technology in the world.”
…
MedBeds are imaginary magical beds, sort of like a tanning bed, that diagnose or cure health problems instantly and painlessly. The idea is popular in QAnon forums, and believers claim that Trump is already secretly installing the beds in hospitals.
…
If MedBeds were real and “every citizen” could use them, as the deep fake video suggests, no one would need to worry about losing their healthcare insurance.
Someone took the video down from Trump’s timeline this morning.
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The left isn’t interested in violence against MAGA; the left is interesting in reigning in Trump’s dementia.
Robert Reich, 29 Sept 2025: Again: Why isn’t the media reporting on Trump’s growing dementia?, subtitled “Trump’s increasingly bizarre behavior can no longer be attributed to a calculated ‘strategy.'”
Over the weekend, on his Truth Social, Trump shared a video purporting to be a segment on Fox News — it wasn’t — in which an AI-generated, deepfaked version of himself sat in the White House and promised that “every American will soon receive their own MedBed card” that will grant them access to new “MedBed hospitals.”
What?
Believers in the “MedBed” conspiracy theory think certain hospital beds are loaded with futuristic technology that can reverse any disease, regenerate limbs, and de-age people. No one has an actual photo of these beds because they don’t exist.
Reich goes on with other Trump stories about the FBI being part of January 6th, and sending the military to Portland, OR. Then:
What’s been the media’s response to Trump’s bonkers postings and announcements this weekend? Nada. The media either ignored them, mentioned them as part of Trump’s “strategy,” or assumed Trump was just being Trump.
But there’s another explanation.
Trump is showing growing signs of dementia. He’s increasingly unhinged. He’s 79 years old with a family history of dementia. He could well be going nuts.
Again and again, think what the right would have said if Biden had done or said similar things. There’s the emerging theme that Trump’s dementia is like the naked emperor, whom no one wanted to be the first to point out that he had no clothes.
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More right-wing craziness as compiled by JMG.
- Leavitt: The Michigan Mass Shooter “Hated” Mormons. This seems to be true, since the right wants to portray this attack as anti-religion, but she omits the part that “the shooter once wore a ‘Make Liberals Cry Again’ Trump 2020 campaign shirt, that he had a Trump/Pence campaign sign on his fence, or that he and his family attended pro-Trump and QAnon/anti-vax demonstrations.” She sees only what she wants to see. Motivated thinking.
- From USA Today: Michigan Mass Shooter Was Full QAnon/Anti-Vax/MAGA
- Government propaganda. Florida To Sue Schools That Refuse Turning Point Clubs
- Trump Declares 100% Tariff On Foreign-Made Movies. This is the most ludicrous tariff of all. Foreign movies are propaganda?? Or because those movies should have been made in the US? Nonsense. What’s next, tariffs against Italian, Mexican, and Chinese food because Americans should only eat hamburgers and hot dogs? (Yes I know that Italian, Mexican, and Chinese food that Americans eat is made here in America, but I’m not sure Trump would understand this.)
- Energy Dept Adds “Climate Change” To Banned List. Because if you don’t say it, it will go away.
