Mother Jones illustration; Getty
“I know in my heart that med beds [sic] are real,” a woman named Pam wrote recently on TruthSocial, the social media site owned by Trump Media and Technology Group, and President Donald Trump’s favorite place to post. “I’ve been hoping and at the same time thinking it’s too good to be true,” Pam confided. “But Trump is giving me back my hope.”
“I’ve been dreaming about this healing tool for a long time.”
Over the weekend, Trump posted an AI-generated video on the platform that touted purported “medbeds,” a non-existent healing technology that people falsely believe will miraculously cure all maladies. In the video, a robotic-sounding Lara Trump is seen heading a Fox News segment about medbeds, as footage of a fake Donald Trump proclaims, in part, “Every American will soon receive their own medbed card. 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.”
Trump deleted the video without comment a few hours later. But even after it was taken down, his TruthSocial followers—who are among his most devoted fans—took the post as a sign that medbeds are about to be unveiled. They speculated about why the video had been deleted (one theory was that it had too many comments) and assured each other that the technology was indeed on its way.
“I’ve been dreaming about this healing tool for a long time,” one woman wrote. “I hope a ticket for me and my husband. [sic] Healing frequency and advancing healing technology is possible.”
“All citizens will get a card,” another wrote, “And I’m sure the waitlist will take the most acute first.”
All of this, of course, is a lie. “The medbed fantasy isn’t new,” says Jonathan Jarry, a science communicator at McGill University’s Office for Science and Society. “The promise is always that this fantastical technology will be rolled out tomorrow, and tomorrow never comes.”
Medbeds are just one outright fake or dubious health technology being promoted by TruthSocial accounts. TruthSocial users skew older and generally have a great deal of faith in Trump—demographics that suggest a less sophisticated approach to evaluating online claims. The site has become fertile ground for false or contested health claims, with TruthSocial users often proclaiming the miraculous healing benefits of ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, both of which have been heavily promoted as fake Covid cures. On a recent day, for instance, a user calling herself “Oksana Trump” with 143,000 followers—a massive number for the site—shared a post about Florida’s plans to investigate ivermectin and other generic drugs as cancer treatments. Her replies were full of TruthSocial users proclaiming they already had used the drug to treat cancer, instead of chemotherapy or other scientifically-backed options. TruthSocial users also frequently promote or even provide links to places to buy what is called “vitamin B17,” a longstanding fake cancer cure often derived from apricot seeds, as well as “Indian black salve,” a product that falsely claims to cure skin cancer. The FDA warns that using black salve can result in disfigurement and infection while delaying actual treatment.
Even before Trump re-shared the AI-generated video, the medbed discourse was extremely active on TruthSocial. Users who seem to be would-be conspiracy entrepreneurs provide posts with what they claim are “medbed hospital updates” or assurances that “medbed cards” are being rolled out, sometimes accompanied with what look like AI-generated illustrations.
Several accounts on the platform claim to provide access to medbed reservations or hospitals. “This is not a rumor,” one such account proclaimed. “Not speculation. Not a future promise. Reservations are NOW open.” The link the account provides goes not to a medbed facility, but to a Telegram channel; Jarry has written about how social media users who claim to have access to medbeds will solicit a “registration fee” of hundreds of dollars from potential customers seeking appointments to use the technology—appointments that will, of course, never come.
TruthSocial, of course, is not alone: most social media sites are now filled with bad health information and dubious cures, as the companies have rolled back rules against health misinformation that were put in place during Covid. Twitter/X stopped policing Covid misinformation in 2022, while Meta moved to a “community notes” system for health misinformation in January—one that public health experts warned would likely lead to a rise in health misinformation on Meta’s platforms. This week, YouTube announced that it would reinstate accounts previously banned for making false claims about both Covid and the 2020 election.
But TruthSocial’s aging and especially Trump-devoted crowd represents a particular user base, one looking for any sign that the Trump administration will bring them the prosperity, deliverance, and even healing they’ve been promised. Long after Trump deleted the post, users there were still excitedly speculating about when, exactly, they would receive their medbed cards, and assuring each other the technology absolutely exists, but is kept secret.
“I know medbeds are already here,” wrote one TruthSocial user named Cyndi who, based on her online activity, appears to be an older white woman living in the Midwest. “I’ve seen facilities in several states. I believe medbeds are our future, not Big Pharma.”
When I reached out to her by email to ask about her confidence in the non-existent technology Cyndi replied, “All I can tell you is that I’ve done Google search on med beds, which showed me where the facilities are.” She added that she believes there’s “at least one in about every state,” sometimes using the name “Tesla Med Beds.” (The product neither exists, nor has any link to Elon Musk.)
“I’ve seen videos of people using med beds going back 10 years,” Cyndi added. “First article I saw was a facility out of Ohio. That’s all I know and that the military has been using med beds for decades. That’s all I can tell you.”
When the president posts a fake video promising a miraculous piece of healing technology, it speaks directly to the deepest hopes of some of his base. But, Jarry warns, it also opens the door for more scams.
What’s “remarkable” about Trump supporters’ belief in medbeds, Jarry explains, “is that it is one of the few optimistic conspiracy theories I have seen. Whereas most conspiracy theories center on a sinister goal, this one is benevolent in nature.”
But that doesn’t mean it isn’t harmful to the president’s fans. “Given that Trump has given this mythical technology the biggest publicity it has ever received,” Jarry warns., “I won’t be surprised to see entrepreneurs jumping on it to sell gadgets and services that will enrich them and impoverish desperate people.”
