Rudy Giuliani is shutting down online death rumors with a one-word response after a terrifying ICU stay left him fighting for his life.
The 81-year-old former New York City mayor sparked widespread concern after he was hospitalized in Florida over the weekend in critical condition with pneumonia. The health scare was so serious that a Catholic priest reportedly read him his last rites while he remained in the ICU.
As news of Giuliani’s condition spread, social media users quickly began speculating that the politician once hailed as “America’s Mayor” had died.
“Rudy Giuliani is deaaaaaaaaaaad,” one X user falsely declared Tuesday.
But Giuliani himself soon logged on to make it crystal clear he was still alive. Replying directly to the post on Thursday, he wrote simply: “Not.”
The blunt response immediately triggered a flood of relieved reactions from supporters celebrating his recovery.
“Welcome back Mr. Mayor. I was in NYC on 9/11 and I felt safer with you in charge,” one supporter wrote.
Giuliani’s restrictive airway disease reportedly developed after his exposure to toxic debris following the Sept. 11 terror attacks, when he emerged as a national figure during New York City’s recovery efforts.
His lawyer, Michael Barasch, has since petitioned to get Giuliani into the World Trade Center Health Program, which provides free healthcare to people suffering from long-term illnesses linked to exposure to toxic debris from the attacks.
Giuliani’s latest health crisis began after he returned from a trip to Paris feeling ill, his nurse and rumored girlfriend, Maria Ryan, told Fox News this week. Ryan said Giuliani has since been removed from the ventilator and is now breathing independently.
“This guy’s got nine lives,” Ryan said. “Today he’s doing much better.”
His spokesperson, Ted Goodman, also praised Giuliani’s recovery after first announcing on Sunday that the former mayor had been hospitalized in critical condition.
“We do ask that you join us in prayer for America’s Mayor Rudy Giuliani,” Goodman said at the time.
Days later, Goodman struck a far more optimistic tone.
“Mayor Giuliani is the ultimate fighter—as he has demonstrated throughout his life—and he is winning this battle,” he said in a follow-up statement on Monday.
Giuliani’s latest hospitalization comes after years of mounting legal and political troubles for the once-powerful prosecutor and politician.
The former mayor became one of President Donald Trump’s closest allies and played a central role in amplifying false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, 79, after his loss to Joe Biden.
Giuliani has since been disbarred in New York and Washington, D.C., and was found liable for defaming two Georgia election workers by falsely accusing them of helping to rig the election.
Trump offered his own well wishes while Giuliani remained hospitalized, calling him “the best mayor in the history of New York City” in a Truth Social post before pivoting to attacks on Democrats and the “radical left.”
This is not the first time Giuliani has had to reassure supporters he was still alive after a medical scare.
Last August, Giuliani was hospitalized after a driver slammed into his parked rental car at high speed, leaving him with a fractured thoracic vertebra, bruises, lacerations, and injuries to his left arm and lower leg.
Following that crash, Giuliani posted on social media thanking the medical staff who treated him, while his head of security, Michael Ragusa, urged the public to “refrain from spreading unfounded conspiracy theories” about the former mayor’s condition.
