President Trump had nothing on his public schedule for three days last week. He is often sporting a large, purple bruise on his right hand, which he sometimes slathers with makeup. His ankles are swollen. He is the oldest person to be elected president.

上周，特朗普总统的公开日程表上连续三天出现空白。他的右手常常有一块明显的紫色淤青，有时还会涂抹大量的化妆品遮掩。他的脚踝肿胀。他是美国历史上当选时最年长的总统。

For a swath of hyper-online Americans over the long Labor Day weekend, all of this was explanation enough: The president was either dead or about to be.

在刚过去的美国劳动节长周末里，这些迹象对许多沉迷网络的美国人来说足以说明问题：总统要么已经死了，要么命不久矣。

Mr. Trump’s critics have speculated about his health for as long as he has been in national politics. And for his part, he has long declined to explain when and why he has sought out medical care, whether he was suffering from Covid or undergoing routine procedures. But there had never been a conspiracy wave as feverish as this one.

自特朗普登上国家政治舞台以来，对其健康状况的猜测就从未停止。而无论是感染新冠还是例行体检，他本人一直以来都拒绝说明就医的具体时间、原因及状况。不过，之前还从未有过像这次这样狂热的阴谋论浪潮。

On TikTok, influencers with legions of followers surmised that the White House was publishing old photos, suggesting that the president was being hidden from view. Reddit threads, one after another, were ablaze with commentary. On X, posts shared by anonymous critics disseminating dubious reports picked up thousands of interactions and shares.

在TikTok上，拥有大量粉丝的网红推测白宫发布的都是旧照片，暗示总统的行踪被刻意隐藏了。Reddit论坛的讨论区热议不断。而在X平台，匿名批评者分享着来源可疑的传言，获得了数以千计的互动和分享。

There was so much conversation around the president’s absence that Mr. Trump was asked to weigh in on Tuesday, at his first official public appearance in a week. When asked by a reporter how he first learned that he was dead, Mr. Trump said that he was not aware of the rumors that he had died. Then he started speaking about those rumors at length, saying he had done media appearances, gone golfing at his Virginia club and posted prolifically on his social media site.

围绕总统消失的讨论如此热烈，以至于特朗普在周二——这是他一周来的首次正式公开露面——被问及了此事。当记者问他是如何得知自己的“死讯”时，特朗普回答说，他并没有关注这些传言。随后他开始大谈特谈这些传闻，声称自己不仅在多个媒体露面，还前往弗吉尼亚的高尔夫俱乐部打球，并在自家的社交媒体平台上频繁发帖。

“I did numerous shows, and also did a number of Truths,” Mr. Trump said during an appearance in the Oval Office, referring to his social media site, where he posted over 90 times between Saturday and Monday. “I think, pretty poignant Truths. I was very active over the weekend.”

“我上了不少节目，还在Truths上发了很多帖子，”特朗普在椭圆形办公室现身时说。在刚过去的周六到周一期间，他在该平台发帖超过90条。“我觉得这些Truths贴都非常犀利。我整个周末都非常活跃。”

Welcome to the modern, conspiracy-fueled world of presidential health, where distrust and speculation run so rampant that even Mr. Trump’s online assurance that he was fine earlier this weekend — “NEVER FELT BETTER IN MY LIFE!” he wrote on Sunday — was immediately explained away as part of a cover-up.

欢迎来到这个总统健康疑云被阴谋论裹挟的现代迷局：在这里，不信任与猜测肆意蔓延，甚至就连特朗普在刚过去的周末通过社交媒体发布的身体无恙保证——“我这辈子从没感觉这么好过！”他在上周日写道——也立刻被解读成掩盖真相的障眼法。

The focus on the health of an aging president seems inevitable after the nation's experience with Mr. Trump’s predecessor, Joseph R. Biden Jr., who physically declined in public, though his aides attacked those who questioned what they were seeing. Mr. Trump made Mr. Biden’s fitness for office a foundation of his 2024 campaign, even after Mr. Biden dropped out of the race.

特朗普的前任拜登总统在众目睽睽之下曾表现出身体衰退的问题，尽管他的助手们对那些看出问题的人发起了谴责。经过这件事后，人们对年迈总统的健康格外敏感，似乎已经在所难免。在2024年的竞选中，特朗普甚至把拜登的身体状况是否适合当总统作为竞选的核心议题，直到拜登退选后都没有停止。

Adding to the problem is a longtime presidential tendency to not disclose a full picture of health. Although Mr. Trump has obscured the truth about his health before, this is not unique to him. President Woodrow Wilson had a stroke and was hidden from public view. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was wheelchair bound, but few Americans at the time ever saw him in one. President John F. Kennedy suffered from chronic back pain but was held up as the picture of health.

问题还在于，一直以来，美国总统的健康状况并非完整披露。虽然特朗普此前曾模糊处理自己的健康状况，但这并非其独有：伍德罗·威尔逊总统中风后一直向公众隐瞒；富兰克林·罗斯福总统常年坐轮椅，但当时很少有美国人见过他坐轮椅的样子；约翰·肯尼迪总统长期受腰痛困扰，但却塑造出了一个健康的形象。

For years, justifiable concerns and questions about Mr. Trump’s health have often been met with obfuscation or minimal explanation from the people around him. Mr. Trump’s physicians have not taken questions from reporters in years, and there were no medical briefings held after an assassination attempt against him in Butler, Pa., last summer.

多年来，关于特朗普健康状况的合理关切与疑问往往遭到其身边人士的模糊处理或敷衍回应。特朗普的医生已经多年不接受记者采访，去年夏天特朗普在宾夕法尼亚州巴特勒遭遇刺杀未遂后，也没有举行任何医疗情况通报。

Distrust and speculation surrounding Mr. Trump’s health goes back to his first term. In 2018, Mr. Trump’s longtime physician, Dr. Harold N. Bornstein, accused two Trump aides of staging what he called “a raid” of his Manhattan office in February 2017 and removing all of Mr. Trump’s medical files.

围绕特朗普健康状况的怀疑与猜测可以追溯到他的第一任期。2018年，特朗普的长期私人医生哈罗德·伯恩斯坦指控称，2017年2月，特朗普的两名助手“突袭”（伯恩斯坦的原话）他在曼哈顿的办公室，带走了特朗普的所有病历。

That month, Dr. Bornstein had given a lengthy interview to The Times and had disclosed the medications Mr. Trump was taking: antibiotics to control rosacea, a statin for elevated blood cholesterol and lipids, and finasteride, a prostate-related drug to promote hair growth. Dr. Bornstein, who died in 2021, also said that Mr. Trump, rumored to be a germaphobe, “changes the paper on the table himself” after examinations.

那个月，伯恩斯坦接受了《纽约时报》的长篇采访，披露了特朗普当时正在服用的药物：用于控制酒糟鼻的抗生素、用于降低胆固醇和血脂的他汀类药物，以及一种用于治疗前列腺疾病但可促进头发生长的药物非那雄胺。已于2021年去世的伯恩斯坦还说，传闻中有洁癖的特朗普在体检后会“自己更换检查床上的垫纸”。

At the time, Mr. Trump’s press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said aides had taken the files as part of a standard transition measure.

时任特朗普新闻秘书的莎拉·赫卡比·桑德斯表示，助手们取走医疗档案属于标准交接程序的一部分。

Questions continued to circulate after Mr. Trump made an unexplained and unannounced visit to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in November 2019. (In 2021, his former press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, wrote in a memoir that Mr. Trump had undergone a routine colonoscopy.)

2019年11月特朗普突然前往沃尔特·里德国家军事医学中心且未做说明后，质疑再度流传（他的前新闻秘书斯蒂芬妮·格里沙姆在2021年的回忆录中称，特朗普当时只是接受了一次例行结肠镜检查）。

Questions were raised again in June 2020 when Mr. Trump gingerly navigated a ramp at a West Point graduation and appeared to have trouble raising a drinking glass. When Mr. Trump had Covid in October 2020, he was sicker than anyone around him had publicly revealed at the time.

2020年6月，特朗普在西点军校毕业典礼上小心翼翼地走下坡道，并且似乎无法举起水杯饮水，这再次引发外界猜测。2020年10月，特朗普感染新冠，当时他的病情比身边任何人公开透露的都要严重。

“There’s always been this wishful-thinking industry around Trump’s health and Trump’s legal woes,” said Mike Rothschild, a journalist and author who studies conspiracy movements. “There’s been this far-left influencer sphere that is constantly pumping up the idea that Trump is about to go to prison or the walls are closing in.”

“围绕特朗普的健康状况和法律困境，一直存在着一个一厢情愿的臆想产业，”研究阴谋论运动的记者、作家迈克·罗斯柴尔德说。“有一个极左翼的意见领袖圈，一直不断渲染特朗普即将入狱或者四面楚歌的论调。”

As with many conspiracy theories, this latest one about Mr. Trump’s health carries a kernel of truth: He is old. At the end of his second term, he would be 82 years old, and months older than Mr. Biden was when he left office.

与许多阴谋论类似，这次关于特朗普健康的最新传闻也包含了一点事实：他确实年事已高。若完成第二个任期，他将以82岁高龄卸任，比拜登离任时的年龄还要大几个月。

Mr. Trump, 79, also has a history of high cholesterol. According to his most recent health disclosure sent in April by his White House physician, Dr. Sean P. Barbabella, Mr. Trump takes two medications, Crestor and Zetia, to lower his LDL cholesterol levels.

特朗普现年79岁，还有高胆固醇病史。根据白宫医生肖恩·巴巴贝拉今年4月发布的最新健康报告，特朗普目前服用两种药物——可定(Crestor)和依泽替米贝(Zetia)——来降低他的低密度脂蛋白胆固醇水平。

In 2018, Mr. Trump’s White House physician at the time, Dr. Ronny L. Jackson, said Mr. Trump was in “excellent” health, but noted that the president’s LDL levels were listed at 143, well above the desired level of 100 or less, despite taking Crestor. This year, Dr. Barbabella listed them at 51.

2018年，时任白宫医生的罗尼·杰克逊曾宣称特朗普健康状况“极佳”，但同时也指出，尽管在服用可定，其低密度脂蛋白胆固醇水平仍达143，远高于理想值——100或以下。而巴巴贝拉今年公布的数据已降至51。

David J. Maron, a cardiologist at Stanford University School of Medicine who has not treated Mr. Trump, said that such a drop could be attributed to an “extraordinary” response to Zetia — an outcome he said was unlikely — and to a higher dose of Crestor.

未曾治疗过特朗普的斯坦福大学医学院心脏病学家戴维·马伦表示，这样的下降可能源于对依泽替米贝有“不同寻常的”反应——不过他认为可能性很低——以及更高剂量的可定。

A better diet and lifestyle changes could also help, though Mr. Trump, who is overweight, still maintains a diet heavy in fast food, including McDonald’s. Dr. Eric Topol, a cardiologist and founder of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, said it was “not possible” to drop to such a low LDL level by adding Zetia alone.

更好的饮食和生活方式改变也有帮助，尽管超重的特朗普仍保持着以快餐（包括麦当劳）为主的饮食习惯。斯克里普斯研究所创始人、心脏病学家埃里克·托波尔博士则指出，单靠增加可定是“绝无可能”把低密度脂蛋白胆固醇降到这么低的水平的。

Mr. Trump also takes aspirin to reduce the risk of cardiac problems. White House officials, including Dr. Barbabella, have said that the aspirin is the cause of the large bruise on Mr. Trump’s right hand, and that the bruising comes and goes based on how many hands Mr. Trump has been shaking. The president tends to dab makeup on the bruise that is a shade lighter than his skin tone, making the cover-up more conspicuous.

特朗普还服用阿司匹林以降低心脏病风险。包括巴巴贝拉在内的白宫官员称，其右手的大块淤青正是阿司匹林所致，且淤青会根据握手频次而时隐时现。特朗普习惯用比肤色浅一度的粉底遮盖淤痕，这反而使遮掩痕迹更为明显。

Several physicians who have not treated Mr. Trump say that it is possible for aspirin to cause bruising.

多位未参与治疗的医师表示，阿司匹林确实可能导致淤青。

“Bruising on the back of the hand of an older adult is common,” said Dr. Samuel C. Durso, the director of the department of medicine at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. “Especially if that person, a golfer with solar skin damage, takes aspirin.”

“老年人手背出现淤青是常见现象，”约翰斯·霍普金斯湾景医疗中心内科主任塞缪尔·杜尔索博士表示，“尤其像他这样患有光源性皮肤损伤的高尔夫球爱好者，而且又在服用阿司匹林。”

Dr. Durso and other physicians said that the White House explanation for Mr. Trump’s swollen ankles — the result of chronic venous insufficiency, a condition that occurs when veins have trouble moving blood back to the heart, Dr. Barbabella said in July — is possible.

杜尔索和其他一些医生均表示，白宫对特朗普脚踝肿胀的解释是有可能的——巴巴贝拉在7月称，这是慢性静脉功能不全所致，即血管难以将血液送回心脏。

Others were skeptical of the White House explanation for the swollen ankles. Dr. Daniel J. Rader, a cardiologist at the University of Pennsylvania, said venous insufficiency, or varicose veins, does not cause major swelling and “almost never” causes it in both ankles, as was seen with Mr. Trump.

不过，也有人对这一解释表示怀疑。宾夕法尼亚大学心脏病学家丹尼尔·雷德医生指出，静脉功能不全或静脉曲张并不会导致明显肿胀，而且“几乎不可能”像特朗普那样双脚踝同时出现肿胀。

The White House has not said whether officials would have Dr. Barbabella answer questions from reporters, as Dr. Jackson last did in 2018. In a statement, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said that Mr. Trump was “perfectly fine” and had a “tremendous” amount of energy.

白宫尚未表明是否会安排巴巴贝拉接受记者提问——其前任杰克逊曾于2018年这样做过。白宫新闻秘书卡罗琳·莱维特在声明中表示，特朗普“身体状况极佳”，精力“非常充沛”。

“He has been completely transparent about his health with the public,” Ms. Leavitt said in a statement, “unlike his predecessor.”

“他在健康问题上对公众完全透明，”莱维特在声明中强调，“这与前任总统形成了鲜明对比。”