Kaitlan Collins Reveals She Had Friends Asking Her If Trump ‘Actually Died’ During ‘Trump Is Dead’ Weekend

CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins revealed to comedian and pundit Bill Maher that she had friends seriously asking her if President Donald Trump “actually died” when “Trump is Dead”-mania swept social media.

On Friday night’s edition of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, the interview guest was Steven Pinker, professor and author of the forthcoming book “When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows…: Common Knowledge and the Mysteries of Money, Power, and Everyday Life.”

The panel guests were Kaitlan Collins, CNN Chief White House Correspondent and anchor of the weeknight show “The Source with Kaitlan Collins”; and Stephen Moore, senior visiting fellow in economics at The Heritage Foundation and co-author of “Trumponomics: Inside the America First Plan to Revive Our Economy.”

During the “Overtime” segment, Maher asked about the “Trump is Dead” trend that erupted last weekend:

BILL MAHER: Okay, first question is for you, professor. What did you make of how the rumor that Trump was dead spread around the… I guess this is apropos to your theme of the book, whenever, but this was just a rumor. I mean, you should answer this too, because this is your beat in Washington. There was a rumor that, because to me it just shows how much he’s in our heads, that when he doesn’t appear for a day, we’re like, he must be dead. For a minute. I mean, but…

KAITLAN COLLINS: What was crazy about that was sometimes there are these rumors that that you know appear online and proliferate This was pretty widespread like I had people who I think have a pretty tight grasp on reality asking me if this was true last weekend if he had actually died

STEPHEN MOORE: But how does that even happen? He’s on TV every single hour of every single day.

KAITLAN COLLINS: Well he hadn’t been in public actually, it was the longest stretch he had not been in front of the camera.

STEPHEN MOORE: Oh I see, so he must be dead!

KAITLAN COLLINS: It was the longest stretch he had not been in front of the camera since taking office. Then we did see him golfing over the weekend, but yeah, but I mean, he got asked about it and seemed surprised by it, even though he did tweet, in all caps, he was better than he’s ever been on Sunday, which I think he did get word of what was happening.

BILL MAHER: But is this apropos to what we were talking about in any way?

STEVEN PINKER: It’s a it’s a stretch because it’s not that everyone knows that something that is actually true, but the but it’s true that we are sensitive to what? Other people believe so there can be a kind of self-reinforcing dynamic to rumors. I’m old enough to remember when Paul McCartney was dead

STEPHEN MOORE: That’s right, exactly. Right. Yes. Is he?

KAITLAN COLLINS: No, I saw him in New York the other day.

Watch above via HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher.