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Ex-White House doctor explains who decides someone is ‘too old’ to be President
According to US law, presidents must be at least 35 years old. But theres no stipulation that someone becomes ineligible at a certain age.
That makes for some interesting conversations and convolutions. Biden is the oldest president ever, with Trump not far behind. But this question of when one becomes�too�old to be President of the United States is so relevant now�because of rumors and speculation about the mental acuity of the likes of Biden and Trump. Concerns don’t revolve around IQ, with Donald Trump’s estimated to be within the rare high range, but ability.
White House doctor finds himself in the media spotlight
Before Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race, the average age of the two main candidates was nearly 80.
When he did, Trump became the oldest contender for the title in American history.
Speculating about President Joe Bidens cognitive abilities became something of a pastime this year, although his age was already being weaponized against him by his Democratic opponents before the 2020 presidential election.
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Meanwhile, Donald Trumps biographer, Timothy OBrien, has made comments about the former presidents mental acuity. Trump says his tangential, chaotic speaking style is intentional, but the Internet loves to speculate.
Its in this context that Jeffrey Kuhlman, erstwhile physician to Bill Clinton, George W Bush, and Barack Obama, has written Transforming Presidential Healthcare: Ensuring Comprehensive Care for the Commander in Chief Amid 21st Century Threats.
How should the US account for the built-in potential for cognitive decline?
Natures review of Kuhlmans book poses the question, How should the built-in potential for cognitive decline be accounted for?
Kuhlmans suggestion, it says, is that the presidents physician has a medical responsibility to assess potential impairments and communicate about them candidly.
However, presidential physical examinations dont currently involve any sort of cognitive screening. This means that as the system stands the real arbiters of who is too old to rule are& voters. If voters like someone if they consider them able to carry out the duties of the office they’ll vote them in. If they don’t, they won’t. The buck stops with voters.
The most important risk factor for cognitive decline is advanced age, the review adds. After age 60, the rate of cognitive decline tends to increase. Ronald Reagan once held the record for the oldest individual to assume the office of US president. Trump overtook him in 2017. Biden followed in 2021.
If Trump wins in 2024, hell take back the lead. Both he and Biden fit the bill for being officially old, based on research into the perception of age among the elderly themselves.
However, in the absence of any mandatory cognitive assessments, let alone a law that would take them into account, it seems that for now at least, it does indeed fall to voters to arbitrate on the matter of age.
