Politics - News Analysis

Trump Says His Superior Genetics Make His Age Irrelevant

Okay, seriously

We’ve reported quite a bit about Donald Trump being the very first guest on Meet The Press since Kristen Welker, the first black moderator of any American morning news show, took over.

But the interview she had with the former President hasn’t aired yet, and won’t until Sunday. So every bit of it that we get in advance, we want to share with you, because believe me, readers: This just keeps getting better.

In the latest segment aired Saturday morning on the Today show, Welker launched directly into the fact that she asked Trump about age. Many voters and even other politicians are concerned with the age of both candidates, and neither camp seems to want to talk about it.

That’s because Joe Biden is 80, already the oldest person ever elected President. Donald Trump isn’t far behind at 77 — he would be 81 by the end of another term.

When Welker asked, he was quick to differentiate between age as a disqualifying factor — since he’s old too — and cognitive ability. And predictably, he went right back into bragging about “acing” the cognitive test he was administered during his presidency to make sure he didn’t have dementia:

WELKER: What do you make of the age issue? Should there be an age limit to running for President?

TRUMP: No, but there should be a competency, uh, I’m all for the tests. You know, I took a test, two years ago, three years ago, and as the doctors said, and it was in front of doctors and a whole big deal at Walter Reed, which is an incredible place… And I aced it. I got everything right. I’m all for testing. I frankly think testing would be a good thing. A lot of people say it’s not constitutional to do it, but I would be for testing. To test. To make sure, uh, everyone’s just fine. But a lot of people say that can’t happen because of Constitution.

Yes, he said “because of Constitution.”

Also, this test isn’t one where you get answers right or wrong. It’s just an assessment to see if you have dementia.

Trump then went through a litany of reasons old people should be able to run things. He provided an example of an old person he thinks is a great leader, Bernie Marcus — the founder of Home Depot who believes that socialism and “woke people” are ruining capitalism.

But then when Welker asks him directly if he’s concerned about his own age, he (you guessed it) cited his genetics, which he’s more than a little in love with. “My father lived much longer than that, my mother lived much longer than that, so genetically that’s a good thing.”

Watch:

meet the author

Andrew is a dark blue speck in deep red Central Washington, writing with the conviction of 18 years at the keyboard and too much politics to even stand. When not furiously stabbing the keys on breaking news stories, he writes poetry, prose, essays, haiku, lectures, stories for grief therapy, wedding ceremonies, detailed instructions on making doughnuts from canned biscuit dough (more sugar than cinnamon — duh), and equations to determine the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow. A girlfriend, a dog, two cats, and two birds round out the equation, and in his spare time, Drewbear likes to imagine what it must be like to have spare time.

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