Donald Trump has said he does not support an age limit for running for president – but he does support a mental competency test.
Trump, 77, told NBC News in an interview scheduled to air Sunday that he believes age doesn’t matter but cognitive function does when it comes to Biden’s brain function.
“I don’t think Biden is too old,” he said. “But I think he’s incompetent, and that’s a bigger problem.”
But Trump made his own faux pas during an appearance in Washington DC on Saturday. He said Biden would lead the US into World War II – which ended in 1945 – and appeared to say he would beat Barack Obama in the polls.
Obama was president between 2009 and 2017 and cannot be re-elected.
Joe Biden, 80, is the oldest person ever elected president, and his age is a concern for many voters across the political spectrum.
If Biden wins back the White House, he would be 82 years old when his second term begins in January 2025.
If Trump wins, he would be 78 years old – the same age Biden was when he began his first term in 2021.
Donald Trump told NBC News in an interview that will air Sunday that he supports a mental competency test for anyone who wants to be president
Trump, 77, said Joe Biden, 80, isn’t too old – but just “incompetent”
Trump said many successful political figures in history are older than him.
“You know, some of the world’s greatest leaders have been in their 80s,” he said.
“By the way, I’m not even close to 80.”
And he said the 10-minute mental exam he administered as president, which is designed to screen for mild cognitive impairment or early dementia, should be mandatory.
“You know, I took a test two, three years ago,” he told NBC’s Kristen Welker.
“And like the doctors said – and it was before doctors and a really big deal at Walter Reed.” [hospital]this is an incredible place.
“And I did it. I’m doing everything right.’
“I’m just there to test.” Honestly, I think testing would be a good thing.
“A lot of people say it’s unconstitutional to do something like that. “But I would be there for testing to make sure everyone was OK.
“But a lot of people say that can’t happen because of the Constitution.”
In March, a Pew report found that most world leaders – 35 percent – are over 60, with the media age at 62.
Biden, spotted leaving church in Delaware on Saturday, is dogged by questions about whether he is too old to run for a second term
Chile has the youngest head of government: Gabriel Boric is 37. Paul Biya from Cameroon is 90 – the only head of state in the world in the 90s.
About a quarter are in their 50s, 18 percent are in their 40s or 70s.
Biden is among the 5 percent of executives who are over 80 years old.
Both Biden and Trump do not correspond to the average American who is 38 years old.
Biden’s age is more of a concern to voters than Trump’s, according to two recent polls.
Both the Associated Press and the Wall Street Journal have found that three-quarters of Americans think Biden is too old to be president, but only about half say the same about Trump.
Biden’s repeated gaffes aren’t helping.
Joe Biden is seen speaking to troops in Anchorage, Alaska on Monday, the 22nd anniversary of 9/11. He is the first president not to spend the anniversary at the site of one of the three plane crashes
Biden (center) visits Ground Zero on September 20, 2001, along with fellow senators Ted Kennedy (left) and Barbara Mikulski (center, wearing a poncho). He was in Washington DC on September 12, 2001
On Thursday, the White House had to edit a transcript of a speech after he said he had reduced unemployment among “African American and Hispanic workers and veterans, you know, the workers without a high school diploma.”
He should say that he has reduced unemployment among blacks, Hispanics, veterans and people without degrees.
On Monday, the anniversary of 9/11, he told troops in Alaska that he was in New York the day after the terrorist attacks.
“Ground Zero in New York – I remember standing there the next day and looking at the building,” he said.
Nevertheless, Biden was in Washington DC – which he noted in his 2017 autobiography. C-Span footage shows him speaking to Congress on September 12, 2001.