If he clinches the presidency next year, he’ll break the record as the oldest person to be elected to the White House.
Yes, that person would be President Joe Biden, but it would also be former President Donald Trump.
Biden secured the title of the oldest presidential winner in 2020. The prospect of him surpassing his own record is a historical detail that worries voters.
Trump isn’t a youngling either. He’s just three years younger than Biden. However, the scrutiny on his age is notably less.
“Trump exudes a youthful energy,” stated Renee King, a two-time Trump voter from Mondamin, Iowa, who remains undecided for 2024. (King chose not to disclose her age.) “Everything he does – the way he speaks, the way he walks – makes him seem much younger.”
“He’s more engaged with social media,” mentioned Jane Story, 56, a Trump supporter from Ames, Iowa. “Adapting to the times is crucial. Trump has shown this adaptability, while Biden has not.”
Dawn Brockett, 57, an independent from Hampton, New Hampshire, feels that Trump appears to possess an ageless quality, likening him to Mick Jagger. Brockett plans to write in a candidate if the general election narrows down to Biden versus Trump.
NBC News conducted interviews with dozens of voters across several states to understand why Biden’s age is a more prominent concern compared to Trump’s. The responses indicated that voters of all ages worry about whether Biden is fit for another full term in one of the world’s most demanding roles, with many expressing a desire for younger candidates across the board.
“I have no doubt I’ll vote for Biden. However, we need age limits for politicians, and I’d like to see much younger candidates,” said Tammy, a Democratic voter in Geauga County, Ohio, who chose to withhold her last name.
Mary Miller, 60, from Novelty, Ohio, primarily voted Republican but supported Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Biden in 2020. She’s content with Biden’s performance but does harbor concerns about his age.
“I find myself holding my breath at times when I listen to him speak in public,” she remarked. “However, he’s the one we have, and … I don’t think it’s such a bad thing.”
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Regarding Biden and Trump, some participants believed the age gap was wider than reality.
Lisa Dumont, 49, a voter from Salem, New Hampshire, who twice voted for Trump but now supports former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, labeled Biden’s age a “significant issue” due to his perceived difficulty in speaking.
She incorrectly guessed the president’s age as 86 (he’s 80) and Trump’s as 75 (he’s 77).
Story, from Iowa, estimated a lower age for both men, guessing “70-something” for Biden and “60-something” for Trump.
However, for the most part, voters were fairly accurate in their knowledge – or guesses – of their ages. Ultimately, for them, age was just a number.
They asserted that Trump has aged gracefully.
“It’s genetic,” stated Ilia Charlat, 53, from Bedford, New Hampshire, who plans to support Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis next year. “It comes down to that and lifestyle, but you can clearly see that … Biden is older. … You can observe [with] Trump how sharp he is.”
“It’s not really about age. It’s about how you function at that age, rather than anything else. Trump functions much better than Biden,” said Isiah Chamberlain, 18, from Rindge, New Hampshire, who intends to vote Republican.
Trump, naturally, has done his best to undermine Biden’s suitability for the role. Post the 2020 election, he dubbed him “Sleepy Joe” and questioned his intelligence.
“You look at him, he can’t walk to the helicopter. He walks — he can’t lift his feet out of the grass,” Trump told conservative pundit Tucker Carlson last month.
“He’s physically incapable and he’s mentally worse than physical,” Trump added in a Sept. 2 interview with Real America’s Voice. “And if he gets to the starting gate, it would be a miracle to me.”
Several voters also echoed unverified or false narratives from the right, including suggestions that Biden may have dementia or that his occasional stuttering is evidence of his decline. (Biden has stuttered since childhood and has openly discussed overcoming it.)
Virgil Thorstenson, 74, a fervent Trump supporter from Waukon, Iowa, had a more dramatic theory about what’s happening with Biden: “His cognitive abilities have deteriorated significantly. … I don’t think Biden is in control. I think he’s a puppet being controlled by somebody else.”
Maxine Wheling, 62, a Republican voter from Gering, Nebraska, expressed empathy for the president.
“I feel like he’s being pressured and propped up, which I don’t think is right,” she commented. “I think he’s lived out his life. Enjoy his retirement time with his family.”
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Tom Johnson, 59, a Trump supporter from Rapid City, South Dakota, felt a key difference was that the former president’s mental acuity had been rigorously tested.
“I look at what they did to President Trump,” Johnson stated. “They tested him by giving him this IQ test. I mean, he aced it. And, you know if Joe Biden could do that, fine. But we know that he can’t.”
In 2020, Trump often boasted that doctors had subjected him to a cognitive test, which he “aced,” presenting it as proof of his mental sharpness. He claimed the doctors exclaimed, “‘That’s amazing. How did you do that?'”
However, it wasn’t an IQ test. It was a 10-minute test designed to detect mild cognitive impairment or early dementia.
Trump’s boast came at a time when questions were being raised about his physical and mental abilities after incidents where he appeared unsteady while walking and drinking water.
This time around, Biden is facing heightened scrutiny. During the summer, he stumbled at the Air Force Academy’s graduation ceremony. Last year, he addressed a deceased congresswoman at a public event, despite her passing a month earlier. Recently, he inaccurately mentioned being at ground zero the day after 9/11, when in reality, he visited a week later.
These comments about 9/11 came at the conclusion of a hectic international trip – the kind of travel that can be taxing and exhausting for individuals regardless of their age, something Trump doesn’t have to engage in as much as a presidential candidate.
Biden has also grappled with misinformation, including the false claim that he fell asleep during a memorial for the Maui wildfire victims. Conservatives, including Fox News host Sean Hannity, propagated a low-quality video on social media to support this claim, although a clearer version of the incident revealed that the president had simply looked down for about 10 seconds.
Biden has responded by incorporating jokes about his age, saying things like, “I know I’m 198 years old,” and, “I know I look like I’m only still 29. But I’ve been around a long time.”
Biden campaign spokesman Kevin Munoz cited the Democrats’ successes in the midterms as evidence that voters support the president and his party.
“Next year’s election will be a stark choice between President Biden and the extreme, unpopular MAGA agenda,” he said. “We’ll win in 2024 by putting our heads down and doing the work, not by fretting about polls.”
The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Not surprisingly, Democrats are less apprehensive about Biden’s age than Republicans, but this doesn’t mean it’s not a concern, or that they find it ideal.
“My main concern as a Democrat with Biden is that he won’t complete the whole second term,” expressed Thalia Floras, 75, a Democrat from Nashua, New Hampshire.
“We are in a country primarily controlled by older individuals, people who perhaps have five, 10, maybe one year left in the driver’s seat,” stated Gabriel Reynolds, 19, from East Greenwich, Rhode Island, who is a registered independent leaning towards the Democrats. “We witness people freezing up in meetings and such. It’s not good. We need individuals with a vested interest in the future of the world. We cannot entrust our world to those who have little time left in it.”
Currently, age is evidently on voters’ minds, but it’s certainly not the sole issue, nor does it guarantee it will be the dominant issue a year from now. Trump is contending with various legal challenges, Republicans are devising strategies to mitigate the abortion issue this cycle, and Biden is striving to convince voters of his economic achievements.
Roger Stephenson, 66, a voter from Stratham, New Hampshire, who voted for Biden in 2020 and is open to voting for him again, used to be a Republican but switched to undeclared after Trump’s victory in 2016.
Trump, in his opinion, “has more pressing concerns than his age.”
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