Ron DeSantis Slams Trump on Age Amid Growing GOP Concerns: “Father Time Is Undefeated”
Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida slammed former President Donald Trump on the age front, something that's coming up a lot in the election discourse. On November 19, DeSantis, 45, jibed at Trump for being too old for the post, stating that it is 'not a job for an 80-year-old.' Just for context, on the first day of his second term, should he win, Trump will be 78 years old; he is around four years younger than current President Joe Biden, whose age has also been targetted by Trump himself, other Republican opponents, and even some survey respondents, per POLITICO.
“This is not the same guy as the Trump in 2015 and ’16. That Trump would show up on the debate stage, he would barnstorm,” the GOP candidate said about Trump as he spoke during an interview on CNN’s State of the Union. “Now he’s wedded to the Teleprompter, he’s not willing to debate, and he’s running on many of the same things he promised to do in 2016 and didn’t deliver,” DeSantis added.
“Look, when you get to this point — the presidency is not a job for somebody that’s pushing 80 years old, I just think that that’s something that has been shown with Joe Biden,” DeSantis said Sunday. “Father Time is undefeated. Donald Trump is not exempt from any of that.”
Trump's support base has become somewhat threatened recently as GOP voters have begun to notice prominent gaffes in his speaking. To draw attention to the front-runner's stumbles, DeSantis' team launched a campaign dubbed the 'Trump Accident Tracker' in October. The campaign, highlighting noteworthy blunders— including Trump getting the current President's name wrong, mixing up GOP members, and saying WW2 instead of WW3— blames some of Trump's errors and claims his 'handlers won't let him debate.'
Trump is showing his age, has no path to 270 electors, is bleeding out all his cash for legal bills & is almost certain to be a convicted felon (justified or not) by the general election. The sooner Trump bows out, the better for himself, the GOP & America.
— Yoda4Sanity (Michael Openshaw) (@mopenshaw) November 18, 2023
In the 2024 presidential contest, intellectuals and voters alike have been discussing age nonstop as they get ready for a contest that appears certain to pair Trump against Biden, who turned 81 on November 20. Although voters are concerned about Biden's age, Biden and his campaign have tried to flip the rhetoric with both humorous and political spins.
Trump in Iowa today: “You think it’s easy for me to come from wherever the hell I am and do a rally?”
— Ron DeSantis for President (@DeSantisPrez) November 19, 2023
The age question isn’t going away.
When Biden addressed a crowd at the historic Atlanta church where Martin Luther King Jr. was co-pastor back in January, he attempted to joke about his age, per Associated Press, “I stand here humbled being the first sitting president of the United States to have an opportunity to speak at Ebenezer Sunday service. You’ve been around for 136 years. I know I look like it, but I haven’t.”
The octogenarian's statements about his age are sometimes used to emphasize a larger point, interwoven with serious remarks. Notably, Biden said when he met the Irish parliament earlier this year that he has never been more upbeat about the future. “I’m at the end of my career, not the beginning. The only thing I bring to this career after my age—as you can see how old I am—but is a little bit of wisdom,” Biden continued to the approving crowd. “I come to the job with more experience than any president in American history. It doesn’t make me better or worse, but it gives me few excuses.”