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 prime of thoughts for a lot of American voters. It’s a go-to matter of dialogue at any time when Biden makes a public look or deal with. And it’s acquired its fair proportion of protection within the mainstream political press, particularly the New York Occasions.
However Donald Trump is fairly outdated too.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 observe file of flubs, gaffes, and perplexing mannerisms that mirror lots 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 Occasions/Siena School ballot launched in March. When requested whether or not Trump and Biden had been “simply too outdated to be an efficient president,” 42 p.c of respondents stated they both “strongly” or “considerably” agreed that was the case with Trump. Practically three-quarters — 73 p.c of respondents — stated 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 not often talks about Trump’s?
That is a type of questions that’s arduous to reply quantitatively, however I believe 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 almost a decade of Donald Trump taking part in a central function in our politics, opinions about him as an individual have crystallized within the minds of many Individuals — 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 in another way 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 outdated, however of Trump being bizarre.
The identical isn’t as true for Biden — who many millennials and Gen Xers can bear in mind as a pointy, off-the-cuff everyman politician whose retail politics and banter had been a trademark of the Obama years. Even the Biden of the 2020 major season appeared a contact extra spry than the president operating for reelection right this moment. And the general public has gotten to know a special sort of Biden throughout his presidency.
Moreover, partisanship is one hell of a drug — significantly in relation to Trump. Should you dislike Trump, odds are that him being outdated and behaving erratically in public addresses will not be 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 cause you’ll be able to’t assist him — all the pieces else about him (his authoritarian tendencies, his coverage positions, the corporate he retains) is.
On the identical time, in case you actually like Trump, his age and the way that exhibits up in his peculiar mannerisms are most likely not that related to your resolution to assist him in 2024, or the factor you need to focus on when explaining, describing, or justifying the rationale 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 relation to Trump.
Idea 2: Media protection of Trump and Biden follows totally different imperatives
The media, although fragmented, can nonetheless exert quite a lot of affect on the nationwide dialog. That’s significantly true in relation to how they cowl presidential candidates and politicians, and it has been evident in relation to the age query.
Information organizations and particular person reporters should make editorial selections about what to cowl when on the Trump or Biden beats. In the case of 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 spread of state or federal offenses (categorised paperwork, hush-money funds, making an attempt to cease the certification of the 2020 election), being deposed for these indictments, really on trial, or — most not too long ago — 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 advised him that he and Pelosi had 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 — great content material, I concern. And that’s typically not the case in relation to the extremely orchestrated operations run out of the Biden marketing campaign and White Home.
Actually, the other is commonly true, virtually by design. Biden’s pitch for the presidency was to put off drama and to deliver again boring within the identify of competence. And on the coverage entrance, the president and congressional Democrats have achieved loads, as we’ve got coated right here at Vox. However is any of that essentially the most thrilling stuff to cowl, in case you’re a politics reporter used to overlaying symbolism, custom, palace intrigue, or inside 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 method to succeed in 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 received it.
And it’s basically all the time been the other for Trump, whose each thought (and whose advisers’ each thought) will get communicated to the media. Manner 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 relation to Trump. His beat reporters have a lot to work with as he’s all the time 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 subsequently it may all the time 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 outdated as Biden
Two movies that went viral throughout Trump’s birthday week reveal one other clarification for why we don’t actually focus on 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 appears forward, smiling for a number 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 number 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 typically that has gone properly (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, then again, 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 a substitute, 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 giggle as a substitute 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.