CNN —
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 was Friday.
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. (Biden, of course, would break his own record on inauguration day if reelected.) 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.
The same surveys persistently show there are more reservations about the abilities of Biden than Trump — chiefly because Democrats are far more likely to express concerns about the incumbent’s age and fitness than Republicans are willing to say about their own nominee.
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