Donald Trump told a crowd at The Villages in Florida on Friday thathe is not a senior citizen, insisting he is 'much younger' than his audience even as he campaigns for re-election at the age of 79 and prepares to turn 80 in June.
Trump, whose physical health, mental sharpness and personal conduct have all been under renewed scrutiny, made the remarks during his Florida appearance, his first major outing since an attempted assassination at the White House Correspondents' Dinner in Washington, where a 31-year-old man allegedly breached a Secret Service checkpoint and forced the president and first lady to be rushed to safety. It was also staged against the backdrop of a simmering dispute in Washington over Trump's handling of the Iran conflict and the extent of his war powers.
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At The Villages, a vast and politically reliable Republican retirement community, Trump leaned into his favourite themes of grievance and defiance but wrapped them, somewhat incongruously, in a denial of his own age bracket. Boasting of financial relief measures, he told the cheering crowd: 'And here in the Sunshine State, we've issued 2.5 million Florida seniors over $13 billion.'
He then immediately tried to place himself outside that group. 'Now, think of that. Now, I don't happen to be a senior. I'm much younger than you,' he said, pausing for effect. 'I'm a much younger man than you.'
No reference was made to the widely accepted definition of the term. Federal agencies and most US companies typically classify anyone 65 and over as a senior citizen. Merriam-Webster defines a senior citizen as 'an older adult, and especially one who is age 65 or older.' By that standard, there is little room for debate.
Trump's riff on age did not stop there. Surveying the audience, he added: 'Look at you, old guys. Wouldn't you like to be my age?' The line landed as a joke, but there was an unmistakable edge to his insistence on being 'young, vital and vibrant.'
'Now, I'm much, much younger than the people in this room, but I feel I can relate to you anyway,' he went on, leaning into his familiar claim to understand the struggles of older voters even while denying he belongs to their cohort.
Trump then turned his fire on the media, pre-emptively accusing journalists of twisting his words. 'See, now the fake news will go tonight, and they'll say, he's claiming to be younger than the people,' he told supporters. 'Do you understand?'
In truth, that is exactly what he was claiming. The question is why. Many of his allies bristle at any suggestion that his advancing years might matter, yet the campaign has become hypersensitive to questions over stamina and cognitive health.
Source: International Business Times UK
