Biden or Trump, the next president will be the oldest to take office, does that matter?

Beyond the strong issues that concern voters, such as the border, the economy and international politics, the 2024 presidential elections in the United States have become a campaign crusade to demonstrate which candidate, Joe Biden or Donald Trump , is the one who looks the least advanced in age.

The former president and Republican allies often share videos about Biden, many of them edited, in which he is seen erratic in his movements. Democrats, for their part, replicate speeches in which Trump loses the thread or mock when he mixes up names.

The difference between the two is just 3 years. Biden already set the record for oldest age upon being elected president. At 81 years old, He is the oldest man to have held the position. Donald Trump turned 78 This June 14, if he won the November elections, he would be the oldest man to take office.

He 75% of registered voters are concerned about the president’s abilities, according to a recent national NBC News poll. The same survey indicates that 48% are concerned about the age and health of Donald Trump, who, at 77 years old, He is the apparently safe candidate for the Republicans.

“The issue of age in the US has never been a campaign issue,” he told Univision News, Eduardo Gamarra, professor of Political Science and analyst of the Florida International University (FIU). “Except for the re-election of Ronald Reagan, in ’84, who at that time was 60 years old and made a joke in a debate with his opponent, Walter Mondale, calling him too young (and inexperienced) to be a candidate… because “Many people questioned Reagan’s ability. Reagan’s problem, indeed, was that in the last years of his government he already had Alzheimer’s (and that it is not even an age issue).”

“A politician with experience, because he is an older politician, without a doubt, but “To what extent does experience end up being more important than age, or vice versa, when age ends up being more important than experience?”says Gamarra.

The campaign, and the president, are focusing on Biden’s actions, experience and ideas, and have tried to address the issue of his age, rather than avoid it entirely. Biden even frequently jokes about his years at campaign events.

“In fact, a few months ago we launched a ad (advertising) with Joe Biden saying ‘I’m 81 years old, it’s not a secret. They want to talk about age, let’s talk about age, but let’s also talk about what I have achieved for this country,'” he explained to Univision News Maca Casado, spokesperson and director of Hispanic media for Biden for President.

“Biden has proven to be the only one capable of facing the challenges of our country and taking us into the future, so that we have an infrastructure and an economy to compete with China in the 21st century, for example, bringing jobs back (to the US). ). “They are two completely different visions of the country and Trump’s proposals are extremist and retrograde.”said the spokesperson.

Democrats seek to bring the discussion to topics such as the defense of reproductive health freedoms, including the right to abortion that Republicans have tried to restrict, both at the state level and (some) at the federal level. They seek to highlight the “extremist” ideas and possible “danger to democracy” that Trump represents, linking it to his role in the attempt to subvert the 2020 presidential election.

Casado points out that Trump is barely younger than Biden and that, in the campaign, the president always talks about “the age of ideas.”

“Trump wants to take us to the past, he wants to ban abortion at the national level, for example… so it’s about the age of your ideas, about the future of this country, about what you want for this country. Trump wants to take us to the past. past taking away benefits that Americans have fought for all their lives, like Social Security, Medicare and Obamacare. In this case (Biden) it is that age equals wisdom.”

It has happened that criticism of Biden for his age or for his alleged weakness dissipates (at least for a time) when the president headlines major events such as the final State of the Union address, this year, or as in presidential debates for the 2020 elections, in which he faced Trump with a good performance.

Also, after Biden’s latest executive order to secure the border, Democrats emphasize as an electoral issue that the bipartisan agreement to solve immigration issues failed because Trump called on Republicans in Congress to block it.

Every year Biden’s health is certified by the President’s doctor. The Democrat has passed every physical health exam perfectly, his co-partisans frequently point out. However, Republicans emphasize that these tests do not include cognitive approaches.

After that incident, some Republicans have called for some “examination of his cognitive conditions,” he said. Univision News Jaime Florez, director of Hispanic communications for the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee. “It’s not us Republicans who want to know how the president is doing, it’s the entire country.”

The Republican campaign has made Biden’s age a strong point of its campaign. Instead, He does not address the issue of his candidate’s age because, in essence, he does not believe it is a problem for Trump or can become one.

“We believe that not (it will become a problem) because we see this, not as a matter of number of years… surely we all know someone the age of either of these two candidates who is in full use of their faculties mental and physical… but that is not the case, unfortunately. We have images of the president completely disoriented,” Florez considered.

“There are more Democrats who say Biden is too old than Republicans who say Trump is too old. (The Republicans) have made this a real campaign issue and they use it in absolutely everything,” said Professor Gamarra. “Sometimes, for example, fake videos even circulate that show Biden as if he had defecated in his pants , when he was actually sitting down.”

In contrast, Trump seeks to present himself as the vigorous alternative, routinely attacking Biden as ‘slow’.

But the truth is that there is also no public scrutiny of the Republican’s health since he left the White House, neither physical nor cognitive. And a much more intense stretch of the campaign will soon begin, with more exposure for Trump, which may increase his risks of ‘screwing up’.

Without going any further, days ago Trump said that Milwaukee was “horrible”, just the city that will host the Republican Convention that will nominate him as the party’s candidate.

Credit: AP Images | Getty Images | Composition Univision News / Mariana Rambaldi

It is remarkable that two men of those ages are at the level of activity they are.

“Both candidates, whether you like them or not, are impressive. They are truly impressive for their ages, having the level of activity they have and I think you have to understand the context,” Gamarra tells Univision Noticias.

“In the surveys we have done we find much more of ‘I will never vote for Trump and even if Biden is old, I will vote for him’ and ‘I will never vote for Biden and that is why I will vote for Trump,'” he added.

The expert explains that, in the end, an election is a “game of margins”: “The vote in the end is going to be defined by a few thousand voters in some key states. And those can be Hispanic, they can be LGBTQ, they can be Arab.”

Beyond all the electoral attacks and speculation, whoever wins the election in November will be the oldest president to be sworn in, although it remains to be seen whether, in the end, this really matters.