Opponents of former President Donald Trump, Republican and Democratic alike, are implementing a new shared line of attack: focusing on the 77-year-old’s age and mental acuity.
The strategy is being deployed following Trump’s recent verbal mistakes and stances he appeared to backtrack on shortly after taking them.
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Both Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R-FL) and President Joe Biden’s campaigns are using the new strategy to convince primary voters and general election voters, respectively, that Trump’s age and competence warrant concern.
First, Biden’s 2024 reelection campaign rolled out a new account on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, called Biden-Harris HQ. It adopted the tactics of the Biden-critical account, RNC Research, cutting real-time footage of Trump and immediately blasting out any real or perceived mistakes or faux pas. Since its creation, the Biden team’s account has managed to surpass RNC Research in post views, reaching several million on some.
More recently, DeSantis’s campaign launched an “accident tracker” that will tally Trump’s days without a misstep. According to the tracker, Trump is “0 days accident-free.”
According to some strategists, this is a politically expedient move for both of the campaigns. “For Biden, the timing couldn’t be better,” said Democratic commentator Kaivan Shroff. He explained that Biden is showing leadership on the global stage following the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, drawing some bipartisan credit, including acknowledgment from Fox News, which Shroff pointed to.
Because of this, he said, the criticism of Biden’s age “has disappeared in recent weeks, and instead people are emphasizing the importance of his experience.”
At the same time, “Trump is having more gaffes than ever and demonstrating clear confusion at rallies,” he added.
These mistakes are exactly what Biden’s and DeSantis’s campaign efforts have been focusing on. Across several recent events and interviews, Trump has been criticized for confusing the leaders of Hungary and Turkey, mistaking former President Barack Obama and Biden, calling terrorist group Hezbollah “very smart,” pointing out that the acronym for the United States, U.S., also spells the word “us,” and various other teleprompter-related or verbal gaffes.
Both campaigns have used their manpower to spread clips and articles documenting such instances to as many people as possible in the hope that they call into question Trump’s ability to serve as president.
“The mental acuity is it’s a great question. I think that’s a better attack than just trying to say Trump is old,” Republican strategist Susan Del Percio said.
“Not knowing world leaders in a time like this — that’s a problem,” she said, referring to Trump’s Hungary-Turkey mix-up.
According to her, “Between that mistake and criticizing Israel and praising [Hezbollah] … these are bad foreign policy mistakes at a time where foreign policy is front and center.”
But not everyone is in agreement on the strategy. “Attacks on Trump performances are unlikely to sway his core base of support who are used to him being off message,” said fellow GOP strategist Ron Bonjean. “Even independent voters who don’t agree with him aren’t seeing the former president as visibly lacking energy.”
Democratic strategist Marshall Cohen added, “Any effort to showcase how Trump is clearly unfit to lead the country is a smart move.” He explained such a move prevents voters from becoming “numb to his dangerous antics, nonsensical comments, and erratic behavior.”
Republican strategist John Feehery explained, “Most Republicans like Trump. I think the best bet for DeSantis is to say, ‘With me you get all the Trump policies and none of the mean tweets,'” rather than convince them of the former president’s incompetence.
According to GOP strategist Alex Bruesewitz, “voters see two desperate and pathetic campaigns that know they can’t beat Trump in 2024.”
“DeSantis is working with Joe Biden to undermine the eventual Republican nominee,” he added.
Several recent polls have shown a significant number of people having concerns over both Biden and Trump’s ages, 80 and 77, respectively. One such measure revealed more than half say Trump is too old to be president again, and 77% say the same about Biden. In another survey, 72% of registered voters indicated Biden’s age, specifically, would be a factor in their 2024 vote.
But one upside for the president is the fact that, of those who believe both men are too old to serve another term, more say they still plan to vote for Biden. Therefore, if he can manage to increase concern over Trump’s age, just three years less than his own, Biden may put himself in a better position come 2024, which already promises to be a tight race if they are both their parties’ nominees.
Discussing a new poll from Franklin and Marshall College of Pennsylvania voters, Floyd Institute’s Center for Opinion Research Director Berwood Yost said, “I think their best bet is trying to make more people think that they’re both too old,” given Biden’s advantage among the subgroup.
If anything, he explained, closing the gap of age concern will put Biden and Trump on a more even footing, forcing voters to focus more on other considerations. At that point, Trump’s various legal struggles could be more of a detriment to the former president.
This could be something of an uphill battle for Biden, however. Marjorie Connelly, a senior fellow with the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, noted that people have increasingly mentioned Biden being old as their first thought of him. In 2020, she said, 16% first thought “old” when asked about him. In the August survey, this number jumped 10 points to 26%.
As for Trump, “old” wasn’t significant enough to produce a percentage in 2020. And in August, it was just 1%. But, she confirmed this could have been swayed by Trump’s prominent indictments and legal cases unfolding throughout 2023.
Commenting on whether the strategy being used by DeSantis and Biden could increase the perception of Trump as too old, she said, “Things change,” referring to the most recent measure being conducted in August.
According to Del Percio, the strategy’s effectiveness is “absolutely” increased by it being employed by two very different campaigns at once and being delivered to two very different audiences. It will be effective particularly because they are “repeating a message over and over while you have two different people repeating it — and let’s face it — the people who Ron DeSantis is talking to, Joe Biden’s never gonna talk to them,” she said.
Shroff agreed with the assessment, explaining, “it necessarily gets more media coverage, which drives the national conversation.”
Further, he said, it could have “a ‘surprising validator’ effect, whereby Republicans saying the same thing as Democrats adds another layer of credibility to the Democrats’ argument.”
For DeSantis, specifically, the strategy might not be quite as effective. “It’s also a smart strategy for DeSantis in terms of knocking Trump, but it does not guarantee that DeSantis picks up support,” Shroff said. “DeSantis took his time to go negative on Trump. Perhaps he waited too long.”
He predicted that while it may knock some support away from Trump, they aren’t guaranteed to flock to the Florida governor. “I wonder if those who want a more ‘with it’ Trump really have any interest in DeSantis or if they look to someone like Vivek Ramaswamy to take the mantle,” he suggested.
It’s a particularly more difficult task for DeSantis because Biden simply needs to chip away at Trump support. But DeSantis must “actually convert those voters over to his side.”
The attack could also be more effective on Trump as a former president rather than a novice, some argued.
“Last time people gave him a bit of a pass because he wasn’t a politician. He was never president before. He was never a senator before. He didn’t have to know the exact facts. People let them go if he made that slip, and then he cleaned it up,” said Del Percio.
“But it’s a former president — if you can’t tell the difference between Hungary and Turkey,” she began, “I mean, it is shocking. And it is kind of scary.”
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Shroff said, “‘Biden’s age’ narrative has been around since 2020. Biden hasn’t changed at all. He has always conducted himself the same way, as people know he has overcome a lifelong speech impediment.”
But for Trump, “this is really a new line of attack that seems to suggest Trump’s cognitive decline and cites to numerous recent examples occurring over just a few short weeks. That could convince certain voters that Trump’s time has passed.”
