Just when you thought Donald Trump might be turning a corner in his treatment of Joe Biden the POTUS has served up a reminder of his ruthless (and at times bizarre) approach to dealing with political rivals past and present.

Last month, Biden’s office revealed that he had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that had spread to his bones. The saddening update prompted an outpouring of support, and even Donald Trump had an uncharacteristically measured response to the news.

“Melania and I are saddened to hear about Joe Biden’s recent medical diagnosis. We extend our warmest and best wishes to Jill and the family, and we wish Joe a fast and successful recovery,” the president wrote on social media at the time.

Yet mere weeks later, it appears that the well housing Trump’s sympathies has run dry.

On Saturday night, Trump reposted a baseless (and, again, bizarre) claim on his social media platform, Truth Social, that Biden had been executed in 2020 and replaced with clones or robots.

The original post, coming courtesy of an anonymous Truth Social usual, suggested that former president Biden had been replaced with “clones, doubles” and “robotic engineered soulless mindless entities.”

WASHINGTON, DC – NOVEMBER 13: U.S. President Joe Biden shakes hands with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House on November 13, 2024 in Washington, DC. President Biden continued the tradition inviting the newly-elected president to meet at the White House after Trump won the presidential election on November 5. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Despite the fact that it flies in the face of reason and logic – and of course is supported by no evidence whatsoever – Trump decided to share the link with his almost 10 million followers, void of any context or explanation.

And he didn’t stop there.

In a scathing rant intended to promote further division at a time when political unity in the US hangs by a perilously thin thread, Trump took aim at Biden’s administration, labeling the appropriate parties “scum”.

“Happy Memorial Day to all,” the president began on Truth Social.

“Including the scum that spent the last four years trying to destroy our country through warped radical left minds, who allowed 21,000,000 million people to illegally enter our country, many of them being criminals and the mentally insane, through an open border that only an incompetent president would approve, and through judges who are on a mission to keep murderers, drug dealers, rapists, gang members, and released prisoners from all over the world, in our country so they can rob, murder, and rape again – all protected by these USA hating judges who suffer from an ideology that is sick, and very dangerous for our country.”

Sharing unfounded conspiracy theories isn’t new territory for Trump and his followers, it should be noted, even if the idea of Biden having been replaced by a clone or robot is particularly outlandish.

Few need reminding of the zealousness with which the POTUS has doggedly argued his position that the 2020 presidential election was ‘stolen’ from him – a stance he continues to defend to this day – while he also went on record (before eventually backtracking) alleging that former president Barack Obama wasn’t born in the US.

And of course who could forget Trump raving during the 2024 presidential campaign that Haitian immigrants were “eating the pets” of US citizens?

Not us, in any case.

What do you make of the conspiracy theory in question? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Karla Cortes