Arguments about Trump’s age and fitness backfire after Biden leaves.

Trump relentlessly criticized Democratic rival Joe Biden for his advanced age and physical condition. Even then, if the president withdraws his campaign for reelection, the 78-year-old Republican might discover that the same criticisms come back to haunt him.

Being the Democratic contender, Vice President Kamala Harris, 59, is expected to be significantly older than Trump, making any indication of a deterioration even more scrutinized.

American University political scientist Matthew Foster told AFP that “the dynamics have drastically changed.”

Even after Biden withdrew, Trump persisted in disparaging his mental capacity, teasing him on social media by saying he is “going to wake up and forget that he dropped out of the race.”

The jabs are nearly sufficient to conceal the fact that the real estate tycoon is not quite youthful either.

Trump will be the oldest American president to take office if he wins the election in November.

However, the Republican contender is human, prone to frequent mistakes and rambling outbursts.

“When I lose my way”

It’s difficult to discern if these represent his own cognitive impairment or are isolated incidents.

His fans have cited his endurance during his hour-and-a-half long nomination acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, which he gave just five days after escaping an attempted assassination.

However, several spectators saw the speech and concluded that the candidate was noticeably more exhausted than normal, perspiring through a shaky delivery of the address.

In mid-July, an ABC poll revealed that sixty percent of Americans believed Trump was too elderly to seek reelection.

Trump’s age also came under scrutiny as soon as Biden withdrew from the campaign, although he has continually played off the worries.

He claimed to his fans in January that he had finished his doctor’s cognitive exam and had “aced” the results.

At the time, Trump declared, “I really think I’ll be able to tell you when I go bad.”

But unlike while he was in the White House, the former president is not held to the same standards of medical candor.

There hasn’t been much information released regarding Trump’s health in the last few years.

The former reality TV star merely released a short statement from his physician in November of last year, confirming that he was in good health and that he had dropped weight, but not how much.

“78-year-old convicted felon”

After launching its campaign on Sunday, Harris’s staff is still honing its tactics, but it is certain that one of the 59-year-old candidate’s lines of attack will be Trump’s age.

“The Republican party has nominated Donald Trump, a 78-year-old convicted criminal who has spent decades screwing over working people,” said James Singer, a spokesperson for the Harris campaign, in a statement to AFP.

Foster described Harris’s style as “younger” and “aggressive,” adding that she “brings an absolutely different kind of energy” to her campaign.

Former California senator Kamala Harris left her impact on the televised presidential debates, even though her first attempt at running for president in 2020 failed.

Biden had Harris against him at the time, but he has now asked her to take up the mantle.