Of all of the themes of the 2024 marketing campaign, maybe none is as recurrent, delicate, and sticky as the subject of President Joe Biden’s age. He’s 81. It’s high of thoughts for a lot of American voters. It’s a go-to subject of debate every time Biden makes a public look or tackle. And it’s obtained its fair proportion of protection within the mainstream political press, particularly the New York Instances.
However Donald Trump is fairly previous too. He turned 78 on Friday. Till Biden was elected, Trump held the file for the oldest particular person elected to the presidency. And he has an extended monitor file of flubs, gaffes, and perplexing mannerisms that mirror a lot of Biden’s concern-inspiring moments.
And but, American voters throughout the political spectrum don’t appear as involved about Trump’s age as they’re with Biden’s. Simply three years separate them, however throughout nearly each ballot that asks voters whether or not they’re involved, a constant hole seems in public opinion.
Take the New York Instances/Siena School ballot launched in March. When requested whether or not Trump and Biden have been “simply too previous to be an efficient president,” 42 % of respondents mentioned they both “strongly” or “considerably” agreed that was the case with Trump. Practically three-quarters — 73 % of respondents — mentioned the identical about Biden.
It’s a dynamic that, understandably, frustrates Democrats immensely. They argue that the three-year age hole between Trump and Biden is being held up as equally damaging as the truth that Trump is an extremist who tried to steal the final presidential election.
However this raises an apparent query: Why? Why does the general public appear captivated by Biden’s age, however hardly ever talks about Trump’s?
That is a type of questions that’s arduous to reply quantitatively, however I feel it may be boiled down to a couple theories. A few of it may be defined by the character of who Trump is, some by some media criticism, and a few of it by simply wanting on the two males.
Idea 1: Trump’s age is already baked into the general public’s perceptions of him
After practically a decade of Donald Trump enjoying a central function in our politics, opinions about him as an individual have crystallized within the minds of many People — and he hasn’t actually modified that a lot over these years.
Maybe we’ve gotten used to his antics and verbal tics — the outbursts and bits, the bizarre capitalization in tweets, the random intonations of his speech, the plethora of run-on sentences. We’ve seen that each one earlier than in two presidential campaigns. Why would we start to assume otherwise about all that now?
So when he mixes up the names of cities he’s in, when he mispronounces “Hamas” as “hummus,” and when he mistakenly refers back to the prime minister of Hungary as being the president of Turkey, it’s not a matter of Trump being previous, however of Trump being bizarre.
The identical isn’t as true for Biden — who many millennials and Gen Xers can keep in mind as a pointy, off-the-cuff everyman politician whose retail politics and banter have been an indicator of the Obama years. Even the Biden of the 2020 main season appeared a contact extra spry than the president operating for reelection immediately. And the general public has gotten to know a special form of Biden throughout his presidency.
Moreover, partisanship is one hell of a drug — notably in the case of Trump. In case you dislike Trump, odds are that him being previous and behaving erratically in public addresses usually are not tipping-point components in deciding whether or not you begin to like him or start to fret much less about him. His age isn’t the factor that’s driving you away from him or the primary motive you may’t help him — the whole lot else about him (his authoritarian tendencies, his coverage positions, the corporate he retains) is.
On the identical time, if you happen to actually like Trump, his age and the way that reveals up in his peculiar mannerisms are most likely not that related to your determination to help him in 2024, or the factor you wish to talk about when explaining, describing, or justifying the explanation you continue to again him. His accomplishments in workplace, the tear-it-all-down motion he represents, and his guarantees for a second time period are.
Pew Analysis’s public surveys present some extra proof for this. They’ve discovered sharp partisan divides on the query of age and media consideration with each candidates.
In these surveys, Democrats appear fairly flummoxed about how the media deal with Biden and Trump on the age query. Republicans, in the meantime, don’t appear to consider age that a lot in the case of Trump.
Idea 2: Media protection of Trump and Biden follows totally different imperatives
The media, although fragmented, can nonetheless exert lots of affect on the nationwide dialog. That’s notably true in the case of how they cowl presidential candidates and politicians, and it has been evident in the case of the age query.
Information organizations and particular person reporters should make editorial choices about what to cowl when on the Trump or Biden beats. Relating to overlaying Trump, they’ve a lot to select from. On any given day, it appears, the previous president is:
- mired by authorized troubles, whether or not that was being indicted on a variety of state or federal offenses (categorized paperwork, hush-money funds, attempting to cease the certification of the 2020 election), being deposed for these indictments, truly on trial, or — most lately — having a jury discover him responsible of 34 felonies;
- saying some incendiary factor in a speech or social media submit (that he needs to be a “dictator,” that he would “pardon” insurrectionists, that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our nation,” or claiming that Nancy Pelosi’s daughter informed him that he and Pelosi have been meant to be “collectively”);
- campaigning or fundraising with questionable figures who additionally say incendiary issues;
- or asserting one place on a difficulty, like probably backing a nationwide abortion ban, after which strolling it again when it appears politically expedient.
And a lot extra. There’s an abundance of fabric to work with that goes past simply his age — super content material, I worry. And that’s typically not the case in the case of the extremely orchestrated operations run out of the Biden marketing campaign and White Home.
Actually, the other is commonly true, nearly by design. Biden’s pitch for the presidency was to put off drama and to convey again boring within the identify of competence. And on the coverage entrance, the president and congressional Democrats have achieved rather a lot, as we’ve got coated right here at Vox. However is any of that probably the most thrilling stuff to cowl, if you happen to’re a politics reporter used to overlaying symbolism, custom, palace intrigue, or inner dynamics inside a traditionally leak-proof White Home?
The marketing campaign, equally, is a low-key affair. Biden has visited battleground states to talk on to native audiences and tout his administration’s accomplishments, however he nonetheless opts for releasing content material on social media and operating scores of adverts as the first manner to achieve voters. It’s no shock that the brightest, eye-catching moments of his presidency have been his State of the Union addresses, when he additionally has managed to indicate vigor and wits, reminding of us he’s nonetheless acquired it.
And it’s primarily at all times been the other for Trump, whose each thought (and whose advisers’ each thought) will get communicated to the media. Method again in 2018, Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon had a reputation for this technique: “flood[ing] the zone with shit.”
In different phrases, there’s simply an excessive amount of for the media to cowl in the case of Trump. His beat reporters have a lot to work with as he’s at all times making information; Biden beat reporters in the meantime have the choice of falling again to Biden’s age extra steadily when he’s not making information.
Biden can also’t change his age, and due to this fact it may possibly at all times be a information story. And that additionally creates a little bit of a suggestions loop of incentives, since voters say they care about his age, creating demand for extra tales about his age, amplifying issues about his age, and so forth.
Idea 3: Visuals matter, and Trump simply doesn’t look, act, or current as previous as Biden
Two movies that went viral throughout Trump’s birthday week display one other clarification for why we don’t actually talk about Trump’s age:
The first got here from a White Home celebration commemorating Juneteenth. As singers and musicians carry out on the South Garden of the White Home and Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff sing and dance alongside, Biden seems to be forward, smiling for a couple of seconds earlier than his physique stiffens and the smile fades. His gaze then drifts to the facet earlier than an viewers member will get his consideration. “NO ONE’S HOME,” learn the headline from Fox Information.
The second got here from Trump’s marketing campaign account on X and TikTok selling a collaboration between Trump and wrestler/affect Logan Paul. In that video, Paul and Trump actually face off in entrance of a championship belt, as two boxers do earlier than a match. They stare one another down for a couple of seconds earlier than breaking into laughter and hugging.
Each movies signify the uneven nature of Biden and Trump’s public appearances: Biden, as chief govt, is (rightly) referred to as on to make public appearances outdoors the fastidiously manicured environs of marketing campaign occasions. And whereas generally that has gone nicely (like his SOTU), it has additionally paved the best way for some cringe-inducing moments: He’s tripping up the steps to Air Pressure One, he’s shuffling to Marine One, he’s swaying at public occasions, he’s slurring his phrases whereas talking.
Trump, alternatively, will get to hand-pick the moments he goes in entrance of huge crowds and audiences. Certain, he goes on tangents about electrocutions, wind generators, and teleprompters, however as we’ve mentioned above, that’s dismissed as Trump being Trump. As an alternative, we see clips of him transferring pretty usually — as within the “simply guys being dudes”-style clip with Logan Paul, or in ways in which may make you snicker as an alternative of furrow your eyes, as when he does his bizarre dances or fascinating physique actions.
In brief, each candidates have loads of gaffes and quirks. However whereas Biden’s are interpreted as an indication of superior age, Trump will get away with simply being seen as bizarre.
