The obsession of the crowds, the evocation of Hannibal Lecter, the speeches that last more than an hour and a half – where the former president sometimes rambles -, or the messianic airs with which Donald Trump refers to himself after having survived Butler’s bullet. The Republican has always been characterized by his histrionic side, but amid the usual excesses, questions about the powers of the former president float in the air. With Joe Biden out of the presidential race, the shadow of old age now looms for Trump.
“I’m not 80 and I’m not even close to being 80,” the Republican said with complete conviction last week at a public event in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Trump, 78, was defending himself against recent attacks from Democrats in reference to his age. Kamala Harris called the mogul “unhinged” multiple times, while former President Barack Obama referred to the Republican as “grandpa.”
In recent weeks, Trump has provided enough evidence for Democrats to attack him. The most recent case is that of the Republican candidate faltering just before getting into a garbage truck last Wednesday in Wisconsin. With that, he was trying to focus on Biden — who appeared to call Trump supporters “trash” in comments that the White House and the president himself have tried to clarify — and attack Harris. Although the image of the tycoon sticking his head out the passenger window was the one that made headlines, the shaking when he tried to open the truck door, when it almost felt like he was will fall, recalls the instability that Biden has repeatedly demonstrated, the same that Trump has fiercely attacked.
Days before, during a meeting in the swing state of Pennsylvania on October 14, Trump offered one of the most disturbing images ever seen. At one point, the former president got tired of answering questions from the audience and turned the event into an improvised concert that lasted 40 minutes. The Village People’s “YMCA,” Rufus Wainwright’s “Hallelujah” and Guns N’ Roses’ “November Rain” were some of the songs played while Trump swayed and DJed.
The strange spectacle that Trump put on, and which his spokesperson, Steve Cheung, tried to disguise as “something very special”, took place just two days after the White House released a report from the doctor family of the vice-president on her state of health. health. The document assures that Harris is in “excellent health” and that she has “the physical and mental resilience” to become president.
The last report issued by Trump was in November – right on Biden’s birthday – and indicated that the former president was in “excellent” physical and mental health. However, the letter contained no specific medical evidence detailing his claims. “I took cognitive tests. I’ve done them twice and both times they went well, and in one case the doctor said, ‘I’ve never seen anyone get good grades,'” Trump said from Lancaster.
Despite emphasizing his supposed youth and vigor, Trump has also canceled up to six public media appearances in the past month, according to MNSBC. On some occasions, according to Politico, the Republican campaign team justified the cancellations with Trump’s “exhaustion.” The fatigue or exhaustion that the Republican appears to suffer in the final stretch of the campaign continues to raise even more questions about his age.
Trump continues to hold rallies and attend campaign events to raise funds. On some occasions, he was seen falling asleep, as happened on October 17 at an event in Oakland County, Michigan. When he fell asleep last spring during one of the sessions of the trial in the Stormy Daniels case, his supporters interpreted it as a joke.
The failings, which so far seemed to only haunt Joe Biden, also target Trump. After the debate against Harris, Trump said he was confident the audience at the face-to-face meeting was on his side. The problem is that there was never an audience, since the debate took place behind closed doors. In fact, this was one of the conditions agreed between the two campaigns. Despite this, Trump assured that the audience “went crazy” when he spoke.
A UCLA study shows how since 2016 Trump’s speech has evolved, increasingly using more violent language to the detriment of presenting clearer proposals. Before, even if fake news was already part of the Republican style manual, we could see how the tycoon made speeches with more proposals and which talked more about the economy, in principle the area where he is strong. Today, the vast majority of the rhetoric Trump offers his supporters focuses on an “enemy within” and conspiracy theories about alleged election fraud.
The Democrats are taking advantage of all this arsenal to attack the image of a strong leader that Trump wants to project to his supporters. It’s also a way to turn things around after the former president spent the entire campaign attacking Biden for his age. The same rules of the game he established then now play against him. If Trump wins the election on November 5, he will be 82 years old when he leaves the White House. Biden will leave office at 81.
