WASHINGTON — If either Joe Biden or Donald Trump prevails in the November 2024 U.S. election, the next president will be the oldest in history to take the oath of office.

But as Biden’s age and public gaffes and stumbles have come under greater scrutiny and scrutiny, his tempestuous Republican rival’s missteps have also come into greater focus.

In recent weeks, Trump has confused the Hungarian leader with the Turkish one, claimed he defeated Barack Obama – and not Hillary Clinton, his real rival – in the 2016 election and warned that the world could be on the verge of losing a third World War.

Rivals of the former president have fun with such blunders and are quick to remind voters that Trump, the overwhelming favorite in the Republican primary, isn’t that young himself.

Videos of the 77-year-old real estate tycoon stuttering, verbally stumbling or looking frail and sweaty were gleefully posted on social media by Ron DeSantis’ campaign team. The governor of Florida, a young 45-year-old, is currently leading Trump’s Republican rivals in opinion polls in most states.

“WEAK AND BROKEN”

Meanwhile, Biden’s team is not unhappy about being able to put another aging candidate in the spotlight for once – especially since the incumbent president turns 81 on Monday.

But the Trump camp has not taken such slights lightly.

“The Biden campaign must be confused like its own candidate because Biden is in a constant state of confusion,” Trump spokesman Steven Cheung told AFP.

In an unusually blunt and biting statement, Cheung derided Biden as “weak and frail,” prone to falls and even “just plain stupid.”

During his campaign rallies, Trump generally appears energetic, sometimes interacting for hours with a sea of ​​supporters.

But critics question whether his repeated slips and videos of him holding onto a railing on a ramp to keep from falling or shaking while holding a glass of water are simply expressions of fatigue – or signs physical or mental decline.

From the outside it’s impossible to tell.

Although the two men are not far apart in age, Biden probably appears older, said political scientist Kyle Kondik.

The polls tend to agree: Two-thirds of Americans believe the current president is too old for a second term, while only half of respondents say the same about the slightly younger Trump.

It remains to be seen how the two will fare when the campaign is fully underway, Kondik said. Rightly or wrongly, he added, Trump’s verbal gaffes appear to be judged more leniently than Biden’s simply because Trump has made so many of them.

FAST FOOD

The Republican is also not subject to the same scrutiny as his Democratic rival when it comes to his physical condition.

As US president, Biden – who is often seen cycling with his Secret Service squad – faces an extensive series of annual medical tests, the results of which are widely reported to the press.

While Biden’s most recent health report described him as “healthy (and) vigorous,” it also mentioned that a small lesion had been removed from his skin and that he had a colonoscopy in 2021.

But since Trump left office three years ago, almost no details have been released about the health of the former president, who is known to be a fast-food lover and rarely appears to exercise except on the golf course.

The age of presidents was the subject of lively debate during Ronald Reagan’s second term in the 1980s, when some observers speculated that he appeared to show signs of mental decline.

Years after he left office at age 77, it was revealed that Reagan was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.

In 1994, former President Jimmy Carter himself sounded the alarm in an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, warning of the “danger” to the United States if a president were to suffer from a “neurological disorder” that impaired his ability to lead.

The DeSantis campaign has increasingly highlighted Trump’s age and his gaffes.

“Being president is not a job for an 80-year-old,” DeSantis said on CNN Sunday.

Nikki Haley, a 51-year-old currently seeking the Republican presidential nomination, has repeatedly called for mandatory mental competency tests for politicians over 75.

But nothing like that seems likely any time soon.