WASHINGTON — A presidential candidate’s age still matters. What’s changed is the campaign storyline.
Donald Trump’s campaign spent months trying to convince Americans that an old man shouldn’t be elected president, but President Joe Biden’s decision not to seek a second term has made Trump not only an old man on the campaign trail, but also the oldest presidential candidate in history.
With age no longer an issue, Democrats and other Trump opponents are mocking the 78-year-old Republican candidate with the same elation and venom they used against the 81-year-old Biden.
“Donald Trump is 78 years old and in severe cognitive decline,” the left-leaning group Occupy Democrats wrote on social media platform X (formerly Twitter) an hour after Biden dropped out of the race on Sunday. “Trump should immediately end his campaign.”
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Attorney George Conway, one of the Republican Party’s most prominent Never-Trumpists, quickly chimed in.
“Seriously, how are you going to convince people that some slurred, incoherent old man just out of prison, aka bedtime, is going to make America great again?” he wrote in a message to X.
Columnist E. Jean Carroll, whose defamation lawsuit led to a jury awarding Trump $83 million, posted an unflattering photo of Trump on X, writing, “Suddenly he looks so old.”
Political analysts say the focus on Trump’s age is not surprising, given how the Trump campaign has relentlessly grilled Biden, questioning his physical and intellectual abilities. Making matters worse for Trump is the age difference between him and the Democratic frontrunner, Vice President Kamala Harris. Harris is 59. Trump’s running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, is 39.
“His age will be highlighted as American voters notice the differences between Vice President Harris and Trump, and even Senator Vance and Trump,” said Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public policy at Princeton University and author of a book about Trump’s first term.
“Every false statement, every mistake, every incoherent sentence will be talked about,” Zelizer said. “The irony is that Trump has made this issue important and may now be the focus of this criticism, now that his opponent has shifted.”
Political campaigns have long had to deal with questions about candidates’ age and eligibility to hold office.
John F. Kennedy, 43, dismissed the idea from his opponent, Richard Nixon, who was only four years older, that he was too young and inexperienced to be president. Ronald Reagan had the opposite problem: his opponents argued that he was too old. When a reporter asked Jimmy Carter’s mother, Lillian Carter, who she thought would be the Republican opponent, she joked, “It’s probably Reagan, if he doesn’t die first.”
Reagan often joked about his age during his presidency, but five years after leaving office he revealed he’d been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, raising questions about whether his cognitive decline may have begun during his presidency. His son, Ron Reagan, wrote in his 2011 memoir that he noticed signs his father was losing his mental abilities during his first term.
Asked about Trump’s biggest weaknesses, Republican strategist Liz Mair listed her top three: “Age and mental decline…Age and mental decline…Age and mental decline.”
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Trump and his allies have argued that the former president is more active than people half his age. He posted a video on his Truth Social website of him playing golf with current U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau.
Aides and supporters also point to Trump’s reaction to the assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on July 13, when, with a bullet wound in his ear and blood running from his face, he was hoisted to his feet, raised his fist toward the crowd and yelled, “Fight! Fight! Fight!”
Trump’s rebuttal of the age argument is likely to continue in the coming weeks of the campaign, with Trump so far trying to use his own claims about Harris’ health to poke fun at her loud, raucous laughter.
“I call her Laughing Kamala,” he said at a weekend rally in Michigan. “She’s crazy. You can tell a lot by the sound of her laughter.”
But Democrats continue to point to false and inflammatory comments he made at rallies and raise questions about his age and mental state.
During a campaign rally in New Hampshire in January, Trump repeatedly confused then-Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, who served in his administration, with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat.
During a 90-minute speech at a rally in Charlotte on Wednesday — Trump’s first since Biden dropped out of the race — the Republican presidential nominee distorted statistics, mangled names, talked about replacing military leaders with NASCAR drivers and football coaches and once again praised fictional murderer and cannibal Hannibal Lecter.
“Remember,” David Litt, a speechwriter for President Barack Obama, wrote on X, while Republicans argue Biden is unfit to serve a full term, “less than three hours later, Trump has forgotten his convention speech, failed to pronounce (Benjamin) Netanyahu’s name correctly and claimed yet again that Hannibal Lecter was a real person.”
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After Trump claimed in a television interview on Thursday that Biden’s withdrawal from the race amounted to a coup, the Harris campaign issued a news release mocking “a 78-year-old criminal appearing on Fox News” and asking, “Is Trump really old and weird?”
Democrats, infuriated by Trump’s criticism of Biden’s age and mental health, have rejected suggestions that it is hypocritical to focus on Trump’s advanced age and verbal gaffes.
Political scientist Lara Brown said she took Biden’s criticisms seriously and persuaded him to step aside, even though she didn’t initially see the need to drop out of the race. Neither Trump nor the Republican Party are taking the criticism of him seriously, she said.
Brown said it was now Democrats’ turn to use the age issue to cast doubt on Trump’s intelligence and mental stability. If Trump is re-elected and serves a full four-year term, he will be 82 when he leaves office, older than Biden is now.
“The bottom line is that Democrats are right to point out Republican hypocrisy,” Brown said.
One reason it’s easy for rivals to question Trump’s health is because there are so many questions about it.
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“He refuses to release any medical information,” said Jonathan Reiner, former cardiologist to former Vice President Dick Cheney.
Instead, Trump released a general statement from doctors attesting to his health but did not provide details such as his weight, heart rate, pulse rate or medical history.
The latest statement on Trump’s health came from former White House physician and current Republican congressman from Texas, Ronny Jackson. Jackson, who said he examined and treated Trump after the assassination attempt, spoke about the former president’s healing from an ear injury but did not release a standard medical report.
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“Nobody knows anything about Trump’s medical history,” said Reiner, a professor at the George Washington University School of Medicine. “There were no medical reports after the assassination attempt. That’s odd.”
Reiner said voters had a wealth of medical information about Biden because his doctors regularly released the results of his medical exams, but far less about Trump.
There is evidence that Trump’s age is working against him in the newly scheduled election.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll released this week found that 51% of respondents agreed that Trump is too old to work in government, while 40% disagreed.
These figures are likely to lead to more attacks on Trump’s age and mental health, both of which Democrats say are targets.
“Trump and the Republican Party made this an issue,” Brown said.
Follow Collins on X @mcollinsNEWS and Jackson on @djusatodaYeah
