However much you hate the media, it’s not enough. The latest reminder comes courtesy of The Washington Post.
On Friday, Donald Trump’s birthday, the Post ran a predictable — but nonetheless despicable — piece of 2024 election propaganda titled, “Donald Trump, potential future oldest president, turns 78.”
“Age is just a number, the adage goes. For Donald Trump, that number just got bigger,” writes national political “reporter” Marianne LeVine, who adds that Trump’s age “has also drawn notice from some voters and experts on aging.”
Oh, experts you say? The Post and other media lapdogs love nothing more than laundering their opinions through self-styled “experts,” as we all saw with the Covid panic, Democrats’ republic-destroying lawfare, “cooling” inflation, forever wars, and more — including now apparently presidential fitness and “aging.” As for what the voters notices, let’s just say it diverges from the headline.
The Post cites two polls of voters. In May, Marquette Law School asked registered voters, “How well does [too old to be president] describe Biden or Trump?” Of the results, the Post wrote: “Seventy-nine percent said it described Biden very or somewhat well, while 54 percent said it described Trump very or somewhat well.”
The newspaper then cites an April Pew Research poll showing that, in the Post’s telling, “62 percent of voters said they were not confident in Biden’s mental fitness, and 65 percent said they were not confident in his physical fitness. Trump drew more positive ratings but still faced doubts: 48 percent said they were not confident in his mental fitness, and 39 percent said the same of his physical fitness.” Leading to The Washington Post framing the results as “fewer than half of Biden’s supporters” being confident in his fitness, as opposed to a “majority of Trump supporters” expressing confidence in their candidate.
This is already a headscratcher because you’d think a piece specifically written to a headline about Trump’s age and the “potential” that he’s the “future oldest president” would show worse marks for Trump than for Biden. But even the Post can’t spin the data quite that far.
But spin it they tried. I know because I read the pollsters in their own words (I guess The Washington Post’s love of “context” is circumstantial), which are far more damning.
“Biden particularly is seen as too old to be president compared to those who see Trump as too old,” says the Marquette poll press release. And here’s Pew Research (emphasis mine):
By far, voters have the lowest level of confidence in Biden when it comes to having the mental and physical fitness to do the job. Fewer than a quarter of voters express a high degree of confidence in his mental (21%) and physical (15%) fitness.
In both cases, majorities say they are not too or not at all confident (62% are not confident in his mental fitness, 65% are not confident in his physical fitness).
In contrast, Trump draws the most confidence for his physical and mental fitness for office. About four-in-ten (38%) are extremely or very confident that Trump has the mental fitness to be president, while nearly as many (36%) are as confident in his physical fitness for the job.
The Washington Post clearly cares far less about reflecting voter sentiment than shaping it.
But the Post piece contains a far more basic and glaring lie: that newly 78-year-old Trump’s potential to be the “oldest president” if he wins the 2024 election is somehow worse than 81-year-old Joe Biden — who will turn 82 right after the election and currently holds the age record — continuing to be an even older president if he wins that same election.
Are the Post’s “experts on aging” so bad at math that they don’t realize Trump would have to complete the vast majority of a second term before he hits the age Biden is right now?
“If Trump is elected this fall and serves a full term, he would eventually become the oldest U.S. president in history, eclipsing Biden,” writes LeVine with a straight face, completely neglecting the alternative.
It’s classic media gaslighting — the “don’t believe your lying eyes” technique. Biden is such an unmitigated disaster that the Post has no choice but to give the bitter NeverTrump contingent a retweetable “Old Orange Man” headline to briefly interrupt the neverending Biden gaffe news cycle.
To that end, the Post actually attempts to equate Biden and Trump’s “verbal gaffes,” their doctors’ notes attesting that they’re “fit for office,” and their “fumbles” and “stumbles.” (Seriously.)
Trump “mixed up Nikki Haley and Nancy Pelosi during an event this year, and he has a long history of making false comments and going on meandering rants, including a recent one at his Las Vegas rally about shark attacks.” You mean his hilarious rallies that draw thousands of people no matter where he goes in the country? Well then.
There are a few things LeVine fails to compare and contrast between the two candidates. Trump dancing around and walking confidently compared to Biden wandering until his handlers come to the rescue (assuming he stays on his feet at all). Trump’s quick wit versus Biden’s incoherence, forgetfulness, or awkward reading of teleprompter parentheticals. Trump’s sharp sparring with the media compared to Biden’s apparent inability to stay conscious during interviews. Trump’s straightforward video messages in contrast to Biden’s quick X videos with an editing cut roughly every 2.6 seconds.
And perhaps the most damning of all: Biden’s Department of Justice charging the former president with 37 federal felony counts for allegedly retaining classified documents, while a different special counsel lets Biden off the hook for his own worse classified documents scandal because “Biden would likely present himself to the jury, as he did during our interview with him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
So how about this for a headline? “Voters Say Aging But Vigorous Trump Preferable To Older, Senile Biden.”