At his latest campaign rally in Wisconsin over the weekend, Donald Trump shared an odd anecdote about unnamed Democratic operatives trying to take advantage of senior citizens. “You had people that are in their 80s, ‘Uh, would you sign here?’” the Republican said, referring to a controversy he didn’t identify. The former president went on to call the tactics “a disgrace.”
The comments were strange for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was the implication of the rhetoric: Trump made it sound as if octogenarians were easily manipulated because of their advanced age — despite the fact that he’s currently running for president at age 78. If returned to power, the GOP nominee would turn 80 before the 2026 midterm elections.
As a great many observers have noted, President Joe Biden was subjected to months of intense scrutiny about his age, health and fitness for office. His predecessor and would-be successor has not faced nearly as many questions, despite his increasingly unhinged rambling and apparent difficulties separating fiction from reality.
As MSNBC’s Chris Hayes recently summarized, “It is a little weird that ‘age concerns’ have disappeared as a constant focus of campaign reporting and discussion even though the GOP nominee would be the oldest man ever sworn in to the office and is very obviously sharply declining before our eyes.”
But is the conversation changing? Politico published a report late last week with a headline that read, “Age-based attacks are boomeranging back on Trump.” It was against this backdrop that The New York Times published a new and related analysis in its latest edition.
The last time the nation held a debate with the presidency on the line, a candidate with about eight decades of life behind him faced the challenge of proving that he was still up to the job of running the country. He failed. Two and a half months later, the cast of characters has shifted and another candidate heading toward the octogenarian club confronts his own test to demonstrate that he has not diminished with age. Whether he passes that test may influence who will be the next occupant of the Oval Office.
This analysis, incidentally, ran on the Times’ A1 — making questions about Trump’s age and capacity literally front-page news ahead of a debate that might have a significant impact on the 2024 race.
After conceding that Trump “exhibits more energy and speaks with more volume” than the Democratic incumbent, the report added that the Republican nominee “has mixed up names, confused facts and stumbled over his points. Mr. Trump’s rambling speeches, sometimes incoherent statements and extreme outbursts have raised questions about his own cognitive health and, according to polls, stimulated doubts among a majority of voters.”
The analysis is more than fair given the circumstances, and with Biden retiring, Democrats have become less reluctant to raise concerns about Trump’s age.
But what struck me as notable about the Times’ front-page piece was its existence: The public conversation focused so heavily on Biden’s age and fitness for so long, it appeared that Trump, despite only being a few years younger than the Democrat, was going to escape similar scrutiny, even as he repeatedly embarrassed himself with head-shaking incoherence.
With eight weeks remaining before Election Day, it now appears that public conversation is poised to change.