For Biden and Trump, Age Really Is Just a Number
Either Donald Trump or Joe Biden would be the oldest person to win the presidency if they prevail in next year’s election. At age 77 and 80, respectively, both are already past the U.S. life expectancy of 76.4 years.
It’s become a major source of voter concern and media attention. In a CBS News poll, only 34% of respondents thought Biden would complete a second term and only 55% thought Trump would. It isn’t just the presidential contenders.
Last week, California Sen. Dianne Feinstein died at age 90, long after her health had clearly declined. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, 81, twice went strangely silent in public during the summer.
Nancy Pelosi, who until the beginning of this year was speaker of the House, is 83. Yet the concern that their age somehow disqualifies them from public office doesn’t really align with the state of aging in the year 2023. There’s biological truth to the adage that age is just a number.
Americans on average are healthier in old age than before. Many of the factors that predict longer life favor Biden and Trump, based on publicly released information about their health. “There’s a lot of armchair gerontologists who are wearing glasses through which they see what they want to see," said Jay Olshansky, a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of Illinois, Chicago.
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