The New York Times appears to be trolling President Trump by suggesting he’s getting too old for the job. The man who began running for president by mocking “low-energy Jeb” Bush predictably hated this story. The online headline:
Shorter Days, Signs of Fatigue: Trump Faces Realities of Aging in Office
President Trump has always used his stamina and energy as a political strength. But that image is getting harder for him to sustain.
It became a front-page story on Thanksgiving, under the headline "Signs of Fatigue in Trump’s Trademark Stamina." Reporters Katie Rogers and Dylan Freedman acknowledge that Trump is constantly taking press questions and being available, by contrast to Biden, but hey, let’s just compare Trump now to Trump in the first term:
Mr. Trump remains almost omnipresent in American life. He appears before the news media and takes questions far more often than Mr. Biden did. Foreign leaders, chief executives, donors and others have regular access to Mr. Trump and see him in action.
Still, nearly a year into his second term, Americans see Mr. Trump less than they used to, according to a New York Times analysis of his schedule. Mr. Trump has fewer public events on his schedule and is traveling domestically much less than he did by this point during his first year in office, in 2017, although he is taking more foreign trips.
He also keeps a shorter public schedule than he used to. Most of his public appearances fall between noon and 5 p.m., on average.
Ironically, White House reporters are allergic to Trump's official events. They're designed to make him look good and present him doing and saying positive things. Online, the story came with a short video of Trump looking "drowsy" in an Oval Office meeting.
Trump went after this on his Truth Social account.
"The Creeps at the Failing New York Times are at it again," he wrote. "To do this requires a lot of Work and Energy, and I have never worked so hard in my life. Yet despite all of this the Radical Left Lunatics in the soon to fold New York Times did a hit piece on me that I am perhaps losing my Energy, despite facts that show the exact opposite," Trump posted on Truth Social.
He added: "There will be a day when I run low on Energy, it happens to everyone, but with a PERFECT PHYSICAL EXAM AND A COMPREHENSIVE COGNITIVE TEST ('That was aced') JUST RECENTLY TAKEN, it certainly is not now!"O
The Times did this for Biden, too, but in a gentler tone – aides fret because it’s an image problem with voters. On July 10, 2022, White House reporter Peter Baker acknowledged in a front-page story that Biden didn’t appear much in front of reporters, and “the reality is that managing the schedule of the oldest president in American history presents distinct challenges. And as Mr. Biden insists he plans to run for a second term, his age has increasingly become an uncomfortable issue for him, his team and his party.”
