Aging is a continuous process that begins at conception and gradually deteriorates functions critical to survival. It comes in three dimensions: biological, psychological, and social aging.

Diminishment is the process of becoming “less” gradually, for example in size, stature, importance, vitality, capacity, or importance. In medical biological or neurological terms, it means organs or body parts that have decreased in size or strength due to disease, age, injury, or lack of use.

Aging’s antonyms include youthful, blooming, puerile, up to date, up and at it, all day, every day, in the game.  Diminishment’s anonyms include enlarged, amplified, expanded, grown, and burgeoned.

Social aging is the way society shapes the experiences and meanings of aging, including how people are expected to behave at different ages. It also refers to changes in a person’s roles and relationships, both within their networks of friends and relatives and in formal organizations like the workplace, political views, and challenges.[1]

Today’s social aging affects the world of politics with challenges that other workplaces and environments do not. In politics, social aging is vital. That’s largely because as the nation’s population ages, it produces political and fiscal pressures related to public systems like healthcare, pensions, and social protections. Political issues today include unpleasant facts for elder politicians. For example, (1) a voting majority for the interests of the elderly, (2) a voting majority of females, (3) the domination of the decision power in corporate and similar ruling bodies, and (4) unemployment or a long wait for promotion for younger people.[2]

The most important aging/diminishment problem facing Americans is the fact we had two elder citizens running for president, both of whom are diminished.

“Former president Barack Obama has told allies in recent days that President Biden’s path to victory has greatly diminished and he thinks the president needs to seriously consider the viability of his candidacy, according to multiple people briefed on his thinking.”[3]

“When he left the White House, Donald Trump was a pariah. After years of bending Washington to his will with a single tweet, Trump was, . . .  diminished. He was a one-term Republican president rejected by voters and then shunned by large swaths of his party after his refusal to accept his 2020 election defeat culminated in an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol that sent lawmakers running for their lives.”[4]

Trump is a former chief executive of the U.S. Biden is the current chief executive. But if they were running, or gunning for a CEO position in a top American company neither would be chosen. “President Joe Biden, currently seeking a second term as the Democratic Party’s nominee, is 81. Former President Donald Trump, the Republican Party’s nominee, is 78. No one older has run for U.S. president before. That was also true in 2020 when the same two men ran against each other. The candidates’ ages, coupled with apparent signs of cognitive and physical decline, have many politicians and other Americans asking questions and expressing doubts about both men’s stamina and ability to lead the nation.”[5]

Half of America’s 1,500 largest public companies in the U.S. make their CEOs step down when they turn sixty-five.[6] The other half are somewhat more flexible,  but very few choose CEOs in or near their eighties.

Our constitution does not limit the presidency to age. It sets minimum but not maximum age thresholds for the White House, the Senate, and the House. And it does not assume competence or diminishment. The median age now for all national leaders is sixty-two. Slightly less than 3% of U.S. adults say it’s best for a president to be in their 70’s or older. Roughly half of Americans say it’s best for a president to be in their fifties. And there are only modest partisan differences on age and competency issues.[7]

Aging is one thing. Diminishment is another. Biden’s “path to re-election” was undoubtedly diminished, while his age is merely a statistic. 

Trump’s “path to re-election” is equally diminished by his refusal to accept his 2020 election defeat, his aiding and abetting the J6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, his conviction on thirty-four felony counts, and his pending legal indictments in two states.

However, the diminishment issues related to President Biden went poof around noon on Sunday, July 21, 2024. He said, “While it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as president for my term.”[8]

Sixty-seven percent of voters thought Biden was too old to be president. Thirty-five percent think Donald Trump is too old to be president.[9] That was two weeks ago. Now Fifty-One percent think Donald Trump is too old. The Morning Consult poll surveyed 2,200 registered voters.  Trump has now become the oldest-ever candidate for US president and would become the oldest-ever sitting president, a title held by Biden if he wins a second term.[10]

National Review is an American conservative editorial magazine, focusing on news and commentary pieces on political, social, and cultural affairs. The magazine was founded by the author William F. Buckley Jr. in 1955. On August 2, 2024, it called Donald Trump “too old” and on course to lose the 2024 election. And its senior political correspondent, Jim Geraghty criticized the former president for his recent comments on Vice President Kamala Harris’ ethnicity. During an interview at the National Association of Black Journalists convention on Wednesday, Trump suggested that the presumptive 2024 Democratic nominee, whose mother is Indian, and whose father is Jamaican, “happened to turn Black” in recent years for political gain.”[11]

The headline on The Economic Times on August 7, 2024, blared, “Problem of age and health shifts to Donald Trump, most voters think he is unfit to contest Presidential Election.”[12]

The Carolina Political Review said two years ago ageism was a political weapon in contemporary American politics. It relayed some Trump history to make its point. “What is new is the way that Trump and his supporters might confront ageism. The former president became known for denying facts and conducting a story in the best way he saw fit. He did so during the COVID-19 pandemic and the insurrection on January 6, denying the importance of the lockdown and his responsibility for the invasion of the Capitol building. The former president’s known trait is molding — at least attempting to — a reality on his own terms. Following this logic, one can predict how Trump may play around with the contention of his age if re-elected at the grand age of 78.”[13]

Donald Trump’s campaign spent months trying to convince Americans they shouldn’t elect an old man as president. However, President Joe Biden’s decision to end his bid for a second term not only makes Trump the old man in the race, but he’s now the oldest presidential nominee in history.

With the age question off the table, Democrats and other Trump opponents are taunting the 78-year-old Republican nominee with the same elation and venom he used against 81-year-old Biden.

USA TODAY’s headline on July 26, 2024, flipped the issues.  “Flipping the election  script: Now it’s Trump facing questions about age, mental acuity.”

“A presidential candidate’s age is still an issue. It’s the campaign script that has changed. Donald Trump’s campaign spent months trying to convince Americans they shouldn’t elect an old man as president. But President Joe Biden’s decision to end his bid for a second term not only makes Trump the old man in the race, but he’s now the oldest presidential nominee in history. With the age question off the table, Democrats and other Trump opponents are taunting the 78-year-old Republican nominee with the same elation and venom he used against 81-year-old Biden. Donald Trump is 78 years old and in a state of profound cognitive decline.”[14]

Age and competency are often opposite sides of the same coin. If one side looks old, the other side looks cognitively impaired. One side is long in the tooth. The other leaning toward dementia. Despite which side of the coin toss lands, voters are less likely to pull the lever. No one wants a president whose mind has slipped, even though some will vote for a convicted felon. The 2024 presidential election looked like a coin toss election when it was Trump v. Biden. But now,  Trump’s coin looks tarnished, and Harris’s looks shiny.

[1] https://connect.springerpub.com/content/book/978-0-8261-2173-8/chapter/ch01

[2] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12316297/

[3] https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/07/18/obama-says-biden-must-consider-viability/

[4] https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2024-02-04/how-donald-trump-went-from-a-diminished-ex-president-to-the-gops-dominant-front-runner

[5] https://theconversation.com/bidens-and-trumps-ages-would-prevent-them-running-many-top-companies-and-for-good-reason-234552

[6] Ibid.

[7] https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/10/04/most-americans-favor-maximum-age-limits-for-federal-elected-officials-supreme-court-justices/

[8] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/biden-dropping-out-2024-presidential-election/

[9] https://www.dataforprogress.org/blog/2024/6/29/in-post-debate-poll-voters-think-biden-is-too-old-to-be-president-yet-alternative-candidates-perform-similarly-against-trump#:~:text=Sixty%2Dseven%20percent%20of%20voters,the%20State%20of%20the%20Union.

[10] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-age-polls-2024-election-b2592619.html

[11] https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-too-old-national-review-harris-black-1933682

[12] https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/us/problem-of-age-and-health-shifts-to-donald-trump-most-voters-think-he-is-unfit-to-contest-presidential-election/articleshow/112355810.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

[13] https://www.carolinapoliticalreview.org/editorial-content/2022/12/26/trump-for-presidential-run-in-2024-will-his-age-be-an-issue

[14] https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/07/26/biden-trump-age-mental-acuity-2024-election/74511549007/

Gary L Stuart

I am an author and a part-time lawyer with a focus on ethics and professional discipline. I teach creative writing and ethics to law students at Arizona State University. Read my bio.

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