Former President Donald Trump is desperate to become the oldest person elected to the presidency, which is exactly what he would be should he take office again in January.
I'll admit, age is not the first thing you think of when you think of Trump. Bombast comes to mind, and if you're not one of his supporters, that's just where the nasty words start. The man has been artificially and unhealthily orange for a while now. The hair has always been the hair. As a native New Yorker, I've been living with the hair for an awfully long time.
President Joe Biden, on the other hand is a man who has learned to do a tremendous amount with a few whisps of white, the faintest suggestion of a hairdo. And, of course, he is older than Trump—now. He was younger than Trump's 78 when he was sworn in, by one of those aforementioned hairs of his.
Trump doesn't like to mention his own age—nor his plans for the country for that matter—when he's giving speeches. (As has appeared in these pages previously, he is currently pretending to never have heard of the evil plan for disemboweling American democracy that is Project 2025).
And his wandering populist style is largely unaffected by his age. His opponents have always seen his words as a malevolent word salad, not understanding that the man can read a crowd better than anyone around and adjust his words—and more importantly his tone—to suit them. He can bring them to tears of rage. He can bring out their sense of derision. He can lead them in grievance like a good pastor can lead an evangelical crowd to religious ecstasy.
The shell that is Biden can still bring a little fire, a whiff of brimstone, but he can also mix up Russian President Vladimir Putin with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky, or name Trump as his own vice president.
He is just the man that Trump wants to face, and 45 is desperate to preserve the match up with "Doddering Joe."
I think Biden has been a pretty good president under very trying circumstances. Foreign policy confrontations and complexities are off the charts, and he has responded with force and determination—if mixed success. I know for a fact that an erratic isolationist such as Trump would not have done better in dealing with Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, and whoever else is looking to hook up with this very real axis of evil.
Biden believes in allies and a world order that has served the United States tremendously well, making us rich beyond the wildest dreams of avarice and creating a hegemon like the world has never seen. A U.S. passport has for decades truly been a passport to the world.
On the domestic front, presidents always get too much credit and too much blame for the economy. And when things are a muddle, like our current economy, people can give them as much of either as they want.
Inflation has been terrible, and that means people like me—and you—are getting poorer. (We won't mention the rich getting richer because, under our system, that's just what they do). The job market is a mix, with unemployment low, but good jobs scarce to the point where we're forced to pay people flipping burgers $20 an hour so that they can buy burgers for themselves.
Biden's environmental bona fides look good, but then you see that we're drilling, baby, drilling like never before.
In all, it's a recipe for mediocrity, and probably wouldn't stoke a lot of enthusiasm regardless of the election cycle.
But Biden was our bulwark against Trump and tyranny. He was seen as just good enough to get the job done. We all went along with the program, at least through the primaries, believing that Biden, whatever his deficiencies, had the best chance to hold back the darkness.
But it turns out all those stories on Fox News and Newsmax were right: Joe is older than old. As we all saw in the debate, he's losing or lost it.
And then people started to look backward, seeing signs that were apparently there to see. George Clooney comes forward to reveal—after the cat jumped out of the bag—that Biden hadn't looked very good a couple of months ago. The New York Times had already started its paperwide crusade against Biden, citing his age and infirmities, but bringing in Clooney was a low blow.
Suddenly, men and women who had spent an enormous amount of time around the president—reporters—noticed what could only have been obvious, and decided to pass it along to those of us who don't spend 24 hours a day stalking Biden and his administration: he's kinda old.
Whether Biden stays or goes, he is now tremendously weakened. His own performance, the loss of a media that was always on his side (me included), and now the collapse in support within the party that had long loved him—if never with the enthusiasm he might have wanted—have cost him whatever chance he had at beating back Trump.
And Trump loves it.
As he should.
It's a fever dream scenario for the Republicans. Vice President Kamala Harris might be a damp squib or a juggernaut, nobody really knows, but why take that chance? With any other potential candidate, it's the same. Other than a blank where the Democratic candidate's name is supposed to be on the ballot, what more could Donald Trump and the Republicans ask for than a man with a mediocre record who just isn't there anymore?
There is just one message to pass along to Biden and his team—say it loud, say it clear: "Doddering Joe" has got to go.
We can all feel bad about it later.
Jason Fields is a deputy opinion editor at Newsweek.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
