With the Democratic Party desperate to reclaim power, the age debate will only ramp up

PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK/ PAULFROGGATT

I

will never forget the image of Senator Strom Thurmond (R–SC) being wheeled into the Capitol when he was 100 years old to cast critical votes. Many people, including myself, wondered why he was still there. I am reminded of that image by the nearly nonstop coverage of Joe Biden’s age and diminishing mental acuity during his presidency. Adding to this was the sad announcement that the former president has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer.

A week after this announcement, Congressman Jerry Connolly died in office at the age of 75.

The Democratic Problem

This is the third Democratic member of Congress to die in office this year. Rep. Sylvester Turner died at 70 and Rep. Raul Grijalva died at 77. Congressional Quarterly did a study analyzing the 118th Congress and found that the average age of its members is 58. But what’s interesting is that the Democratic Party skews older. The average age of a House Democrat is 62, and that of a Democratic senator is 65.

Democrats have had this age debate numerous times before. Few can forget the party’s push to remove an aging Senator Dianne Feinstein from office. She ended up dying in office at the age of 90.

But with the Democratic Party desperate to reclaim power, the age debate will only ramp up. Connolly fought and won a leadership battle against 35-year-old AOC to become the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee. Meanwhile, on the Democratic National Committee, 25-year-old ex-vice chair David Hogg is fighting with 51-year-old Ken Martin over the future of the party.

Bottom Line for Dems

The Democratic Party today is largely made up of veterans who fought battles with Ronald Reagan and George Bush. The newer party wants to fight and win battles against Trump. I expect Democrats to start addressing this by making younger members the more visible face of the party while allowing the older members to maintain power over committees and structure.

I believe this measure will be temporary. Many of the younger Democrats have larger followings than the veteran party members and won’t patiently wait their turn. There will be more primaries, more fights to gain power in 2026, as a growing intra-party war ignites.

The Trump Problem

The political right is taking a victory lap over their repeated claims that Biden couldn’t run due to his age. Most would expect the Biden news to hurt Democrats, but I expect it to boomerang in the long-term back to Trump.

Biden was 78 years old when he took office. Trump is now 78. In fact, at his second inauguration, Trump was 159 days older than Biden was when he took office. On the question of age, Democrats will compare Trump to Biden at every opportunity, from now until the end of his term.

Think of how easily the claims against Biden could be flipped back at Trump. Biden was forgetful, he potentially needed a wheelchair, and he couldn’t run for reelection. All it will take is for Trump to forget something, flub his words, or stumble on some stairs to start the debate that he is too old to do his job. Just one health scare will trigger calls for him to step down. Or one anonymous source to claim that he is more tired or aging more rapidly than should be expected.

This tactic won’t stick to Trump as easily as it did to Biden. Trump has a knack for averting traditional scandals due to his nonstop control of the news cycle. But the narrative and the associated attacks won’t stop. The left will take a page out of the right’s playbook and attack our oldest resident with charges that he is running a gerontocratic White House.

Bottom Line for Trump

I don’t see any way of avoiding this problem. Some may claim that Trump projects a powerful and vigorous image, but he will turn 80 in the White House. That’s a big number. Most Americans understand that as being “old.”

To mitigate this, I would recommend the Trump administration adhere to one policy that the Biden administration didn’t — full health transparency. The more Trump has wellness visits and publishes his health records, the more likely he can handle what will be a regular political issue.

Will he do so? I doubt it. Trump never follows a traditional political script — although in this matter, the issue will only grow with time. —

Fearless Forecast

Scorecard

Good Pick: I predicted that the Republican members of Congress would simply shut down town halls, and I have been proven right. Town halls are a remnant of the past. When I worked in Congress, we had to do these town halls, because there was no social media or other mechanisms for reaching your audience. Today? Members can not only hold virtual town halls but do so in a filtered way that frees them from embarrassment and shouting matches.

Bad Pick: Elon who? I could take a victory lap on Elon Musk scaling back his Trump administration, but I must cop to the problem with my prediction. My whole theory was based on Trump tiring of Musk and pushing him out. There is something larger here. Musk is not just seemingly walking away from the administration; he is also scaling back his political donations. This is catastrophic news for a Republican Party trying to hold the House. This seems more and more like a divorce, with Elon leaving the Republicans, not the Republicans leaving Elon.

This Week’s Predictions:

Big Beautiful Bill shrinks and gets uglier: I am very skeptical that every element of the Big, Beautiful Bill will survive in the Senate or at reconciliation. Every single day, another lobbyist or political operative brags to me about how their special interest is taken care of in the Big, Beautiful Bill. There is simply too much in this bill for it to survive. Will it pass? Yes, but it will be scaled down significantly.

Trump’s Qatari plane gets grounded: Congress once earmarked $400 million for a bridge in Alaska serving a population of about 50 people. This “bridge to nowhere” came to symbolize a Congress that encouraged runaway spending. I believe another $400 million dollar boondoggle will now haunt the Trump administration — a plane gifted from the Qatari government. It’s a bad look, and it could overshadow all the things the Trump administration wants to do in the next three years. It will take on a life of its own and become something Trump lives to regret.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1063)