In a rare speechless moment Sunday, Donald Trump stepped back from the microphone as his Las Vegas supporters spontaneously broke into a disjointed rendition of the world’s most recognizable song.
“There’s a certain point at which you don’t want to hear ‘Happy Birthday,’” the former president said when they finished. “You just want to pretend the day doesn’t exist.”
The day does exist, and it’s today.
Trump is now 78 years old. It’s an age that has clearly occupied space in Trump’s mind for some time.
“Just remember what I’m telling you: 78 is not old,” Trump asserted to a New York Post gossip columnist almost two years ago. The offhand remark came during a conversation about his first wife, Ivana, upon the occasion of her passing at age 73.
The significance of 78 is unmistakable. It’s the same age his opponent, President Joe Biden, turned shortly after winning the election in 2020. Concerns about Biden’s fitness for office have followed him ever since, accentuated by a physical decline and diminished appearance that Trump’s allies and his campaign have gleefully amplified.
Yet, if Trump wins, he would be the oldest president at his swearing in at 78 years and 219 days, surpassing Biden’s previous record of 78 years and 61 days. And amid his third White House bid – for which he has maintained a notably light travel schedule and has appeared tired at times during court appearances – Trump’s own mental acuity has faced intense scrutiny from political foes, including Biden.
“But let’s all remember Donald Trump is just a flatulent old man with an orange spray-tan who fell asleep at his own trial,” Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said at the Wisconsin Democratic convention last weekend.
There’s this too: For the remainder of the presidential race, just three years will separate the ages of Trump, 78, and Biden, 81, on paper — a reminder that the two men are indeed of the same era. Born to parents of the Greatest Generation, they each grew up in the aftermath of World War II in a country forever changed by the threat of nuclear war, the proliferation of television and America’s post-war boom. They would’ve overlapped in high school, at least for a time. Through a combination of medial and student deferments, they both avoided serving in the Vietnam War. They’re both grandparents.
In the rematch between the two oldest presidents to ever serve, the advanced age of the presumptive presidential nominees has been a much-discussed factor. More than half of US adults say both are too old to serve another term, according to an April ABC/Ipsos survey, 10 points higher than a year ago.
Earlier this year, Trump similarly told an interviewer, “I feel like I’m about 35 years old. I actually feel better now than I did 30 years ago. Tell me, is that crazy?”
But the observations about Trump’s age and mental state are not just coming from inside the Biden campaign.
Alyssa Farah Griffin, who resigned as communications director in Trump’s White House in December 2020, said on “The View” there are “glaring warning signs about Trump.”
“Listening to him now does not sound like him in 2016 and he was not ever particularly eloquent,” Griffin, a co-host on the show and a CNN contributor. “I’m recognizing and seeing a decline in him. Others who’ve known him have said it and I think that that matters
Amid the constant questions about Trump’s longevity, though, he has told his supporters not to worry. He has good genes.
“My father lived a long time. My mother lived a long time and they were happy and they were great,” Trump told the Vegas crowd. “So maybe we’re gonna live a long time.”
