Trump Turns 78, Spotlighting Age as Central Issue in 2024 Race 

Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump reacts as he is applauded by Republicans at the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) headquarters in Washington, US, June 13, 2024. (Reuters)
Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump reacts as he is applauded by Republicans at the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) headquarters in Washington, US, June 13, 2024. (Reuters)
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Trump Turns 78, Spotlighting Age as Central Issue in 2024 Race 

Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump reacts as he is applauded by Republicans at the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) headquarters in Washington, US, June 13, 2024. (Reuters)
Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump reacts as he is applauded by Republicans at the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) headquarters in Washington, US, June 13, 2024. (Reuters)

Donald Trump turns 78 on Friday, a milestone that will remind voters that the two major-party candidates running for US president this year are the oldest ever to seek the office.

Age and mental sharpness have been at the center of the contest between the Republican Trump and his Democratic rival, President Joe Biden, often getting more attention than substantive policy issues in the run-up to the Nov. 5 election.

Public opinion polls show Americans are more worried about the advanced age of Biden, who is 81. But at 78, Trump is just three and a half years younger, and he would be the oldest person ever to be inaugurated if he wins a second term.

Trump is scheduled to speak on Friday at a birthday party organized for him in West Palm Beach, Florida, by a group of die-hard supporters.

On the campaign trail, Trump has not explicitly made an issue of Biden's age, but has sought to capitalize on his opponent's every verbal mistake, as well as Biden's slowing gait, to cast him as unfit for the Oval Office.

Biden has responded to questions about his age by telling voters to focus on his accomplishments in office as evidence of his acuity and strength. He has also described Trump as a threat to democracy and criticized his sometimes rambling speeches, as well as Trump's use of inflammatory rhetoric against immigrants.

Still, even some Democrats have expressed concerns about Biden's ability to complete another term, which would take him to age 86.

In a Reuters/Ipsos poll in February, some 78% of respondents - including 71% of Democrats - said Biden, already the oldest president, was too old to work in government. Some 53% of respondents said Trump, who was president from 2017-2021, was too old for government work.

"It's not about age, it's about mental competence," said Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt, arguing that voters can see the contrast between Biden and Trump, whom she described as "sharp as a tack with elite stamina."

The Biden campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Presidential historian Timothy Naftali said Trump projects energy in public appearances, making him appear to be more vital physically, but that does not mean he is sharper mentally.

"It's not clear listening to the two men who's in better command of his faculties," Naftali said.

Allan Lichtman, a history professor at American University and well-known presidential prognosticator, said Trump had made gaffes and spread false information to an extent that should be raising more questions about his mental fitness.

"People somehow focus on the mistakes Biden has made while totally ignoring the way in which Trump seems to be entirely unhinged from reality," he said.

Trump and Biden are neck-and-neck in national opinion polls, with Trump ahead in several of the battleground states that could decide November's contest.

It is unclear just how much age will be a factor in the final outcome. Among issues that voters will be weighing is the strength of the economy, which overall is performing well but is beset by inflation, as well as immigration and abortion rights.

Voters also have Trump's legal troubles to consider. Last month, a New York jury found him guilty of falsifying business records to cover up a payment to a porn star on the eve of the 2016 election. He faces three additional criminal cases, though none are likely to go to trial before the election.

The first televised debate on June 27 will be an important test for both Biden and Trump, with voters looking for verbal slip-ups as a possible indicator that they might not be up to the task of leading the country.



Trump Offers to Join Potential Russia-Ukraine Talks in Türkiye

This combination of pictures created on May 12, 2025 shows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy (L) during a press conference with the German Chancellor during the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Berlin on June 11, 2024, and Russian President Vladimir Putin during the Congress of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs in Moscow on March 18, 2025. (AFP)
This combination of pictures created on May 12, 2025 shows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy (L) during a press conference with the German Chancellor during the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Berlin on June 11, 2024, and Russian President Vladimir Putin during the Congress of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs in Moscow on March 18, 2025. (AFP)
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Trump Offers to Join Potential Russia-Ukraine Talks in Türkiye

This combination of pictures created on May 12, 2025 shows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy (L) during a press conference with the German Chancellor during the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Berlin on June 11, 2024, and Russian President Vladimir Putin during the Congress of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs in Moscow on March 18, 2025. (AFP)
This combination of pictures created on May 12, 2025 shows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy (L) during a press conference with the German Chancellor during the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Berlin on June 11, 2024, and Russian President Vladimir Putin during the Congress of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs in Moscow on March 18, 2025. (AFP)

US President Donald Trump offered on Monday to join prospective Ukraine-Russia talks in Türkiye later this week as European countries pushed to get the Kremlin to accept their demand for a 30-day ceasefire in the war in Ukraine.

Trump spoke a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in a fresh twist to the stop-start peace talks process, said he would travel to Istanbul where, he said, he would be waiting to meet Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

Trump told reporters at the White House that talks in Istanbul could be helpful and he might join them on Thursday while in the region. His current schedule has him visiting Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar this week.

"I've got so many meetings, but I was thinking about actually flying over there. There's a possibility of it, I guess, if I think things can happen, but we've got to get it done," he said before departing for his second foreign trip since his second term in the White House began in January.

"Don't underestimate Thursday in Türkiye," he said.

In response to Trump's remarks, Zelenskiy said in a post on X: "I hope that the Russians will not evade the meeting. And of course, all of us in Ukraine would appreciate it if President Trump could be there with us at this meeting in Türkiye." He added that such participation was "the right idea".

Earlier on Monday, the German government said Europe will start preparing new sanctions against Russia unless the Kremlin by the end of the day starts abiding by a 30-day ceasefire in its war with Ukraine.

Ukraine's military said Russia had conducted dozens of attacks along the front in eastern Ukraine on Monday as well as an overnight assault using more than 100 drones, despite the ceasefire proposal by Europe and Kyiv.

"The clock is ticking," a German government spokesperson said at a news conference in Berlin.

It is not clear though how much impact fresh European sanctions would have on Russia, especially if the United States does not join in as well.

The leaders of four major European powers travelled to Kyiv on Saturday and demanded an unconditional 30-day ceasefire from Monday. Putin, implicitly rejecting the offer, instead proposed direct Russia-Ukraine talks in Istanbul that he said could potentially lead to a ceasefire.

The Kremlin has not responded to that latest proposal. Putin and Zelenskiy have not met since December 2019 - over two years before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine - and make no secret of their contempt for each other.

Responding to the proposal of a ceasefire, Russia said at the weekend it is committed to ending the war but that European powers were using the language of confrontation.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Russia was "completely ignoring" the ceasefire initiative, citing what he said were continued attacks on Ukrainian forces.

He said he shared information about the continued fighting with European partners and with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on a joint phone call. The allies had agreed sanctions would be needed to pressure Russia if it snubbed the truce move.

Russia and Ukraine are both trying to show Trump that they are working towards his objective of reaching a rapid peace in Ukraine, while trying to make the other look like the spoiler to his efforts.

FIGHTING CONTINUES

The Ukrainian military's general staff said that as of 4 p.m. (1300 GMT) on Monday there had been 69 clashes with Russian forces along the front line since midnight, when the ceasefire was to have come into effect.

The intensity of the fighting was at the same level it would be if there were no ceasefire, said Viktor Trehubov, a spokesperson for the military on Ukraine's eastern front.

The Ukrainian air force said Ukraine came under attack overnight from 108 long-range combat drones starting from 11 p.m. (2000 GMT), an hour before the proposed ceasefire was due to kick in. Attacks of this kind unfold over the course of hours as drones fly much slower than missiles.

Russia also launched guided bombs at targets in the northeastern Kharkiv region and the northern Sumy region, the air force said, while the Ukrainian state railway company said a Russian drone hit a civilian freight train in the east.

Kyiv is desperate to unlock more of the US military backing it received from Trump's predecessor, Joe Biden. Moscow senses an opportunity to get relief from a barrage of economic sanctions and engage with the world's biggest economy.

Europe meanwhile is doing its best to preserve good relations with Trump despite his imposition of tariffs, hoping it can persuade him to swing more forcefully behind Ukraine's cause, which they see as central to the continent's security.