I'm 89. Anyone over 75 is too old to be president. | Your Turn – USA Today
Is age just a number?
Outside of the ballot box, maybe. But according to our readers, it’s an albatross at best for elected officials.
On the eve of President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday, we asked you, our readers, to weigh in on whether octogenarians like our past two commanders in chief are fit to serve, and how you think age should be regulated (or not) in elected office.
For many of you, age was less a factor than experience and energy. For others, even voters should be age-capped based on our historically lopsided government and wealth distribution.
Below are some of the responses you gave us. For more opportunities to weigh in at usatoday.com/forum, leave us a voicemail at (202) 655-3923 or drop us a note at forum@usatoday.com.
At 89, I have had some experience with aging. I’m well aware of the physical decline, although the president doesn’t need to be a long-distance runner to carry out his duties. I’m also aware of the fact that people age differently.
President Joe Biden looked like he was 90 when he was 80. President Donald Trump is by no means a paragon of physical fitness, but he appears to have more energy than most men his age.
My primary concern with an aging president has to do with his sleep habits. Is he on sleep medication? If so, how quickly can he respond to a 2 a.m. emergency? I recall hearing that Biden had sleep apnea, and wondered how that might affect his alertness at 2 a.m.
While recognizing that people age differently, I have known many people in their 70s and 80s over my 89 years, and, while not subject to easy measurement, I don’t think any of them were capable of putting in 50-60 hours a week in a stressful job. Perhaps for a few weeks, but not over four or more years. I would draw the line at 75 for entering office and 80 for completing one’s term in office.
Clearly, education and experience are critical factors for holding public office. I believe it is highly unlikely that a person under 40 has the experience to serve as president or in Congress. I favor 40 as the minimum age for president and the Senate, 35 for representatives.
Considering the need for experience in all forms of life experiences, I’d put the ideal age for a politician at 60. At that age, he or she should have had sufficient experience in life’s challenges and still enough physical energy to put in long hours on the job.
— Michael Tymn, Hawaii
Not only do we need age limits for the entirety of government, but in my opinion we need age limits for voters as well. People should not be able to vote in an election that they will not be alive to see the consequences of. Elected and appointed officials should not be able to start a term of any length after their 65th birthday. Watching a bunch of older adults fall asleep during national security meetings is embarrassing.
Every single government official, elected or not, should have an absolute retirement age of 65. We’ve watched Presidents Trump and Biden be asleep during meetings on national TV. We’ve watched Sen. Mitch McConnell freeze during a speech. It is embarrassing and disgraceful.
There’s no real reason a president should be required to be at least 35. This limits the opportunity for smart, decent people to run. They all should be 30 across the board.
Age does matter. Geriatrics and boomers ruined this country, and yet they’re the only ones holding any elected roles. They hoarded wealth from younger generations and now won’t relinquish power by retiring, either.
— Wes Ramsey, Arizona
As a nation, we have survived older presidents. One major difference is that, at least for me, President Trump is taking a new approach to what we claim as first principals as Americans. For his own purposes, he has taken the best qualities of the American experiment and twisted them to fit his own agenda. He has purposely appealed to the worst side of human nature and painted it as good and patriotic.
It’s not necessarily age but attitude and intention that define a person’s interpretation of what healthy leadership should look like. Anyone with no core values – young or old – should make voters pause.
Why should we have age limits? Why not term limits? Or if not term limits exactly, at every level cited, the incumbent would be required to take a time-out from office after, say, 12 years in place, and sit it out for three years before running again for the same office.
Term limits only represent danger to incumbents, because they would be forced to relax their grip on power and influence. For voters, it would be the opportunity to blow some fresh air into the systems governing their lives and get a fresh perspective from someone with a different approach to perennial problems. Politicians need to get over themselves and really put the people first. They are not the title or the office; they should represent the people they serve. That means you cannot be someone who serves self over the voter.
These standards have worked well for 250 years. I think we are on a roll! Even with the wide displacements in American life, those ages still make sense.
Thinking of myself at age 25, I would have completed my primary education and was confident enough in myself to take on the privilege of campaigning for office, and I would have been sure I had something worthy to offer to the constituents. According to some age researchers, the brain is not fully “mature” until after age 22, so for me, 25 years of age is fine. The other two standards have proved to be overly problematic, so I don’t see the need to change.
— Chantal Dalton, Washington, DC
There are a variety of important jobs that have age limits – pilots, air traffic controllers, police, fire personnel, just to name a few. The age limits range from the 50s to the 60s. These positions have high levels of responsibility, physical and cognitive demands. With that in mind, there is no reason to believe that someone in their 70s or 80s should be responsible for running a country as complex as the United States. I think the same goes for members of the House, Senate and Supreme Court – they should be age-limited also.
I am Gen X, and I see high value in what my generation ‒ born between 1965 and 1980 ‒ learned as we transitioned from an analog world to a digital world. We are an independent, problem-solving, resourceful, educated generation and would have a lot to offer the presidency. There has to be some military veterans, corporate leaders or others who would be good candidates for president.
— Mel Bolling, Idaho
