Trump's turn to be handicapped by the age question

Camille Camdessus – Agence France-Presse in Washington

Published yesterday at 6:37 p.m.

• United States

Donald Trump has continued to attack Joe Biden on his age, portraying himself as an energetic leader in the face of a declining old man. An argument which risks turning against him after the withdrawal of the Democratic president and the entry into the running of Kamala Harris, twenty years his junior.

Without Joe Biden in race, the 78-year-old Republican is now by far the oldest candidate, which “completely changes the dynamic” of the campaign, political scientist Matthew Foster told AFP.

< p>For months, the billionaire's team took great pleasure in publishing videos of the 81-year-old Democratic president stumbling, stuttering, looking haggard or appearing disoriented – as so many illustrations of his inability to govern .

Confused and disjointed tirades

Again on Monday, Donald Trump continued to joke about the mental capacities of his ex-Democratic rival, assuring that Joe Biden did not “remember having abandoned the race”, accusing him of being “incapable of leading the country “.

A posture which could almost make us forget that the former president is not very young either.

< p>If the Republican wins in November, he will be the oldest American president to take the oath of office.

His repeated gaffes, his string of confused and disjointed tirades , do they illustrate a decline of the ex-president ? Or simple moments of distraction, of fatigue ?

It is, basically, impossible to say it.

Republican's supporters point to his more than hour-and-a-half-long speech in Milwaukee – just five days after escaping an assassination attempt – as an illustration of his endurance.

But some observers also saw a candidate much more tired than usual, slow-moving, sweating, with drawn features.

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“When I Lose My Mind”

According to an ABC poll, 60% of Americans felt they were mid- July that Donald Trump was too old to run for a second term.

As soon as Joe Biden withdrew, Donald Trump's age was, in turn, found pointed out.

The septuagenarian brushes aside these concerns.

In early January, he assured his supporters that he had recently taken a cognitive test and passed it “with flying colors.” And to promise: “I will keep you informed when I lose control, I really think I will be able to tell you.”

The Republican tenor is not however not subject to the same medical transparency requirements as when he was at the White House.

No details, or almost no details, have been leaked for years on the condition health of the former presenter, a claimed fast-food lover. In mid-November, the Republican simply published a short letter from his doctor stating that he was in “excellent” health, and that he had lost weight – without specifying how much.

< p>A few hours before Joe Biden's withdrawal, his former doctor at the White House also published a rare health bulletin, but which only mentioned the after-effects linked to the shots which targeted him: “a marked swelling of the entire upper part of the ear » right.

« Reconvict, 78 years old »

The Kamala Harris team, candidate only since Sunday, is obviously still refining its electoral strategy. But there is no doubt that Trump's age will be one of the angles of attack for the 59-year-old candidate.

In a press release sent to AFP on Monday, a Vice President James Singer's spokesmen have already called Donald Trump a “78-year-old convict who spent decades screwing over the working class.”

< p>“She will bring a completely different energy” to the campaign assures Matthew Foster of American University, referring to “her youth”, but also her “aggressiveness”.

The former senator, unsuccessful candidate in the 2020 Democratic primaries, stood out particularly during one of the televised debates.

Kamala Harris was then facing Joe Biden, from whom she is now called to take up the torch.