Flipping the (election) script: Now it's Trump facing questions about age, mental acuity
WASHINGTON – A presidential candidate’s age is still an issue. It’s the campaign script that has changed.
Donald Trump’s campaign spent months trying to convince Americans they shouldn’t elect an old man as president. But President Joe Biden’s decision to end his bid for a second term not only makes Trump the old man in the race, but he’s now the oldest presidential nominee in history.
With the age question off the table, Democrats and other Trump opponents are taunting the 78-year-old Republican nominee with the same elation and venom he used against 81-year-old Biden.
“Donald Trump is 78 years old and in a state of profound cognitive decline,” the leftist group Occupy Democrats wrote on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, an hour after Biden left the race Sunday. “He should end his campaign immediately.”
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Attorney George Conway, one of the most prominent Never Trump Republicans, quickly piled on.
“Seriously, how do you convince people you’re going to make America great again with some old guy who slurs his words and rambles incoherently after his jail ti— … um, I mean bedtime??” he wrote in a message on X.
Columnist E. Jean Carroll, whom a jury ordered Trump to pay $83 million in a defamation case, posted an unflattering photo of him on X and wrote: “Suddenly, he is looking very, very old."
The script-flip focus on Trump’s age is no surprise given how his campaign hounded Biden and raised questions about his physical fitness and mental acuity, political analysts said. Even worse for Trump is the age disparity between him and the likely Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, who is 59. Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, is just 39.
“The contrast American voters will see between VP Harris and Trump, and even Senator Vance and Trump, will now highlight his age,” said Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University and the author of a book on Trump’s first term as president.
“Every misstatement, mistake or rambling sentence will be a subject of conversation,” Zelizer said. “The irony is that Trump elevated the issue and might now be the focus of this very criticism now that his opposition has changed.”
Political campaigns have been forced for years to deal with questions about a candidate’s age and fitness for office.
John F. Kennedy, 43 at the time, brushed off suggestions by opponent Richard Nixon, just four years his senior, that he was too young and inexperienced to be president. Ronald Reagan had the opposite problem: Opponents suggested he was too old. When a reporter asked Jimmy Carter’s mother, Lillian Carter, whom his Republican opponent would be, she quipped: “It looks like Reagan. If he doesn’t die first.”
Reagan used his age as a punchline for self-deprecating jokes throughout his presidency. But his revelation five years after leaving office that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease raised questions about whether his cognitive decline started while he was still president. His son, Ron Reagan, wrote in a 2011 memoir that he saw signs his father was losing his mental faculties during his first term.
Asked about Trump’s biggest vulnerabilities, Republican strategist Liz Mair listed her top three: "Age and mental deterioration … Age and mental deterioration … Age and mental deterioration."
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Trump and his allies insist the former president is more vigorous than people half his age. On his Truth Social site, Trump posted video of him playing golf with reigning U.S. Open men's champion Bryson DeChambeau.
Aides and supporters also point to Trump's reaction to the assassination attempt against him at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania July 13. His ear nicked by a bullet and with blood streaming down his face, Trump was hoisted to his feet and shook his fist at the crowd, yelling, “Fight! Fight! Fight!"
Trump's attempts to counter arguments about his age will likely continue unfolding over the next few weeks on the campaign trail. For now, Trump has tried to raise his own allegations about Harris' fitness, mocking her loud, boisterous laugh.
"I call her 'laughing Kamala,'" he said during a weekend rally in Michigan. "She's crazy. You can tell a lot by a laugh.”
Democrats, however, continue to raise questions about his age and mental fitness by pointing to his misstatements and agitated rhetoric at rallies.
At a campaign event in New Hampshire in January, Trump repeatedly confused Nikki Haley, who at the time was a Republican presidential candidate and had 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 exited the race, the Republican presidential nominee garbled statistics, mangled names, talked about replacing military leaders with NASCAR drivers and football coaches, and again hailed the fictional killer and cannibal Hannibal Lecter.
"Keep in mind," David Litt, a speechwriter for President Barack Obama, wrote on X, that while the GOP claims Biden isn't fit to serve through the end of his term, "less than three hours ago Trump forgot when he gave his convention speech, couldn't pronounce (Benjamin) Netanyahu's name, and insisted yet again that Hannibal Lecter is a real person,"
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After Trump claimed Thursday in a television interview that Biden’s exit from the race amounted to a coup, Harris’ campaign issued a news release mocking the “78-year-old criminal’s Fox News appearance” and asking: “Trump is old and quite weird?”
Democrats, who bristled at Trump’s jabs about Biden’s age and mental fitness, reject suggestions they’re being hypocritical in calling attention to Trump’s advanced years and verbal missteps.
Democrats took the criticism of Biden to heart and persuaded him to step aside, even though he initially didn’t see the need to leave the race, political scientist Lara Brown said. Neither Trump nor the Republicans have taken the criticism of him seriously, she said.
Now, it’s Democrats' turn to use the age issue to raise doubts about Trump’s mental acuity and psychological stability, Brown said. If Trump is elected again and serves a full four-year term, he would be 82 when he leaves office – older than Biden is now.
“In short,” Brown said, “the Dems are justified in pointing out the hypocrisy of the Republican Party.”
One of the reasons it's easy for rivals to make an issue of Trump's health is because there are so many questions about it.
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"He refuses to release any kind of medical information," said Jonathan Reiner, who was the heart doctor for former Vice President Dick Cheney.
Instead, Trump has released general statements from doctors attesting to his health, without details such as weight, heart and pulse rates, and his medical history.
The most recent statement about Trump’s health came from former White House physician Ronny Jackson, now a Republican congressman from Texas. Jackson, who said he evaluated and treated Trump after the assassination attempt, discussed the former president's recovery from the ear wound he suffered but did not make public a standard medical report.
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"No one knows anything about Trump's medical history," said Reiner, a professor at the George Washington School of Medicine & Health Sciences. After the assassination attempt, “there was no medical report. That's crazy."
Voters had plenty of medical information about Biden, whose doctor routinely released the results of his annual physical, but have far less information about Trump, Reiner said.
There is evidence that Trump’s age is working against him in the newly configured election.
Fifty-one percent of respondents in a Reuters/Ipsos poll released this week agreed that Trump is too old to work in government. Forty percent disagreed.
Given those numbers, expect even more attacks on Trump’s age and mental stability. Both are fair game, Democrats insist.
"Trump and the Republicans made it an issue," Brown said.
Follow Collins on X @mcollinsNEWS and Jackson @djusatoday
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Flipping the election script: Trump faces critical questions over age
