Donald Trump has long attacked Joe Biden, his likely opponent at the polls next year, as ā€œSleepy Joeā€, portraying the 80-year-old president as too old and too mentally fogged to occupy the Oval Office. As recently as Friday, the former president attacked his successor for being unfit to deal with Russia and the threat of nuclear war.

But Trumpā€™s tactics rebounded when he said Biden threatened to lead the US into ā€œworld war twoā€ ā€“ and suggested that he, Trump, thought he had beaten Barack Obama for the presidency back in 2016.

There have been two world wars. The first ended in 1918, the second in 1945. The cold war, the nuclear stand-off between the US and the Soviet Union that often threatened a third world war, ended with the fall of the communist regime in Moscow in 1991.

Obama was president, and Biden vice-president, from 2009 to 2017. In the 2016 election, Trump beat Hillary Clinton.

Mockery of Trumpā€™s stumbles was immediate and sustained. But it also pointed to an increasingly stark issue on both sides of the aisle: the advanced age of many American leaders, and polling that shows most voters want generational change.

At 80, Biden is the oldest president ever. Should he win re-election and serve a full term, he will be 86 on leaving office. Polling has shown more than 75% of Americans think he is too old for a second term.

Trump is 77 but polls show significantly fewer voters think he is too old to return to power. Whether gaffes like those he made in Washington move the needle remains, of course, to be seen.

Addressing the Pray, Vote, Stand summit, a rightwing event, Trump said Biden was ā€œcognitively impaired, in no condition to lead and ā€¦ now in charge of dealing with Russia and possible nuclear warā€.

Under Biden, he added: ā€œWe would be in world war two.ā€

On Monday, the MSNBC host Joe Scarborough, a former Republican congressman, laughed as he said: ā€œItā€™s almost like itā€™s the summer of 1939 all over again. You know, [Trumpā€™s] fatherā€™s going to a Nazi rally or something, or a Klan rally. I donā€™t know which rally he did or didnā€™t go to.ā€

Trumpā€™s father, Fred Trump, was arrested after a Klan riot in Queens, New York, in 1927. Donald Trump has reportedly expressed sympathy for Nazism and Adolf Hitler.

ā€œBut yeah,ā€ Scarborough said. ā€œYou think they may want to take out the ā€˜cognitively impairedā€™ part of his speeches from now on.ā€

Jonathan Lemire, his fellow host, said: ā€œThatā€™s an attack line the Republicans and Trump love to use [against Biden] but, man, that does seem like he was looking in the mirror just there.

ā€œI mean ā€¦ we see these polls that suggest that voters are more concerned about President Bidenā€™s age than Donald Trumpā€™s age. Trump is only three years younger and anyone watching Trump day in, day out says heā€™s changed too.ā€

Biden says he is fit to serve. So does Trump, telling NBC in an interview broadcast on Sunday ā€œthere should be a competencyā€ test for presidents, of the sort he ā€œacedā€ while in the White House. That prompted memories of previous national mirth, when in summer 2020 Trump, then 74, bragged about successfully recognising ā€œperson, woman, man, camera, TVā€ in a cognitive exam.

But, again, the issue remains a serious one.

Democrats protest that disproportionate attention is paid to Bidenā€™s age than that of Trump. Last week, Chuck Rocha, a Democratic strategist, told CBS News: ā€œJoe Biden is getting older, we all know that. But the other guy heā€™s probably going to be running against is getting older, too. And in the focus groups that Iā€™m doing, old and steady still beats old and crazy.ā€

Nonetheless, on Sunday, a new poll from CBS and YouGov said only 34% of voters thought Biden would complete a second term if elected. Asked the same question about Trump, 55% said they thought he would complete a full four years.

Asked if the two men had the necessary mental and cognitive health to be president, 26% said only Biden did, 44% said only Trump did and 23% said neither did.

Ninety-one criminal charges and assorted civil lawsuits notwithstanding, Trump leads Republican polling by wide margins. His challengers have made age and cognitive ability an issue but such is Trumpā€™s dominance, they have mostly directed their fire at Biden.

Ron DeSantis, the hard-right Florida governor who is a distant second to Trump, said last week age was ā€œabsolutely a legitimate concernā€ when electing a president.

ā€œThe presidencyā€™s not a job for someone thatā€™s 80 years old,ā€ DeSantis told CBS.

He did not say if he thought the same about someone who was 77, and who the former Republican party chair Michael Steele called a ā€œdumbassā€, over his Washington remarks.

But DeSantis added: ā€œObviously, Iā€™m the governor of Florida, I know a lot of people who are elderly, theyā€™re great people, but youā€™re talking about a job where you need to give it 100%, we need an energetic president.ā€

Concern about the age of many US party leaders has spread beyond the presidency, particularly given public health scares suffered by Mitch McConnell, the 81-year-old Republican leader in the Senate, and Dianne Feinstein, the 90-year-old Democratic senator from California.

DeSantis said: ā€œI think that if the founders could kind of look at this again, I do think they probably wouldā€™ve put an age limit on some of these offices.ā€

  • Son_of_dad@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Itā€™s crazy how weā€™re white washing history now and saying Biden is awesome, solely cause heā€™s not Trump. Heā€™s certainly the lesser of two evils but Biden is far from awesome. Heā€™s as conservative as you get in a politician and his hands are bloodied from the murderous drug war he has pushed for decades, and the police militarization that came with it.

    • btaf45@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Iā€™m not whitewashing Biden at all dude. I can remember every US president starting with Nixon. That is 50 years worth of presidents. No Biden is not perfect, but Biden is literally the very best president of the last 50 years

      Heā€™s as conservative as you get in a politician

      Huh? Biden has the most liberal accomplishments out of all presidents of the last 50 years. And if you want to go back decades, Biden was one of the very few senators to vote against the first Iraq War in 1991.

      • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        ā€œBiden sucksā€ supposed leftists when confronted with facts: cricket cricket

        I half suspect these people are just paid shills, but they seem too stupid for that.

    • jcit878@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      from an outsiders POV, Biden is pretty good as far as international relations go, probably best ive seen in my life.