Topline
As concerns have grown that former President Donald Trump, 77, and President Joe Biden, 81, are too old to serve another term amid repeated rhetorical missteps since announcing their campaigns, here’s a list of the most notable recent gaffes.
Key Facts
Trump (March 16): At a rally in Dayton, Ohio, Trump again mistakenly referred to former President Barack Obama, this time possibly confusing himself with Obama, though it remains unclear what he might have meant: “Joe Biden won against Barack Hussein Obama, has anyone ever heard of him?” Trump asked the crowd, before adding, “every swing state, Biden beat Obama but in every other state, he got killed.”
Trump (March 9): At a speech in Rome, Georgia, Trump claimed “the polls are rigged” while discussing his appeal to suburban housewives, before abruptly backtracking and saying “disregard that last statement, I love the polls so much.”
Biden (State of the Union speech, March 7): the president misidentified Laken Riley, the student murdered on the University of Georgia campus, calling her “Lanken,” while holding up a pin with her name on it.
Biden (State of the Union speech, March 7): the president briefly said the 2021 Capitol riot took place on July 6, before correcting himself and saying “January 6.”
Biden (State of the Union speech, March 7): after speaking about capping prescription drug prices, Biden made an off-the-cuff remark and invited Congress to fly with him and see lower prices for their medications in “Toronto, Berlin, Moscow—I mean, excuse me—well, even Moscow, probably.”
Trump (March 2): Trump seemed to confuse former President Barack Obama with President Joe Biden—alleging during a rally in Virginia Putin has “so little respect for Obama that he’s starting to throw around the nuclear word,” marking at least the eighth time in recent months it’s happened.
Trump (Feb. 24): In a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Trump appeared to endorse Biden, telling the audience he agrees with Russian President Vladimir Putin in preferring Biden over Trump.
Trump (Feb. 24): In the same CPAC speech, Trump appeared to forget the name of his wife, Melania Trump, responding to loud applause in the crowd by saying “Mercedes, that’s pretty good!”—though his campaign claimed it was a reference to Mercedes Schlapp, a political commentator and the wife of American Conservative Union (CPAC organizer) chair Matt Schlapp, who he mentioned later in the speech.
Biden (Feb. 8): Biden referred to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi as “the president of Mexico,” ironically during a press conference where he contested a scathing report by Special Counsel Robert Hur that depicted Biden as an “elderly man with a poor memory.”
Biden (Feb. 7): Biden referred to German Chancellor Angela Merkel as the late German leader Helmut Kohl twice while speaking at campaign events in New York, days after confusing French President Emmanuel Macron with his late predecessor Francois Mitterrand during a speech in Las Vegas.
Trump (Jan. 19): Trump confused his sole remaining opponent in the GOP primary race, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., during a New Hampshire campaign speech, telling the crowd “Nikki Haley was in charge of security” on Jan. 6, 2020, as he has repeatedly sought, without evidence, to allege that Pelosi rejected his offer to send more troops to the Capitol that day.
Biden (Nov. 20): The president mistakenly referred to Taylor Swift as “Britney [Spears]” while attempting a joke at the White House’s annual turkey pardoning ceremony, which took place on his 81st birthday.
Trump (Oct. 23): Trump confused the leaders of Turkey and Hungary in a New Hampshire campaign speech and botched a geographical reference, telling the crowd Hungary’s far-right Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is the leader of Turkey, and stating that Turkey shares a “front” with Russia (neither Hungary nor Turkey border Russia and Turkey’s president is Recep Tayyip Erdoğan).
Biden (Sept. 11): Biden falsely stated he was in New York on Sept. 12, 2001 while delivering an anniversary speech to troops in Alaska, claiming he surveyed the damage at Ground Zero the day after the attacks (then-Sen. Biden actually visited Ground Zero on Sept. 20, 2001).
Biden (June 27): Biden has repeatedly mixed up the wars in Ukraine and Iraq, including twice in 24 hours in June, after telling a crowd in Florida in November inflation was tied to “a war in Iraq,” then quickly corrected himself, saying “excuse me, the war in Ukraine,” a misstep that came moments before he wrongly stated his son Beau Biden, who served a year in Iraq in the Delaware Army National Guard, died there (Beau Biden died of brain cancer in the U.S. in 2015).
Key Background
Biden is the oldest president in history and Trump would be the second oldest if he were elected again in November. Though the two are just four years apart, polls consistently show Biden’s age is a far greater concern for voters than Trump’s, including a February Bloomberg/Morning Consult poll that found 82% of voters said Biden or both candidates were too old, compared to 47% who said the same about Trump or both candidates. The age concerns, exacerbated by the candidates’ various rhetorical missteps, have fueled calls for one, or both candidates, to drop out of the race, including a February op-ed and podcast by New York Times’ writer Ezra Klein.Trump—perhaps aware that criticizing Biden’s age could appear hypocritical—has repeatedly said Biden isn’t too old to be president, but is too “incompetent.” Biden, meanwhile, has sought to flip the script on concerns about his own age by highlighting Trump’s missteps on the campaign trail and making jokes about his own age. In an appearance on “Late Night With Seth Meyers” last month, Biden took a jab at Trump for appearing to mix up Melania and Mercedes Schlapp, telling Meyers that Trump is “about as old as I am, but he can’t remember his wife’s name.”
Tangent
Biden’s verbal missteps have been coupled with trips and falls throughout his tenure, often on the stairs of Air Force One, that have heightened concerns about his mental and physical fitness. In one particularly concerning incident, Biden took a hard fall on stage at an Air Force Academy graduation ceremony in Colorado in June last year, an incident his team blamed on a sandbag on stage.
What To Watch For
Biden and Trump are poised for a historic rematch in November as Biden has swept all four Democratic primaries so far and Trump has won nine of 10 GOP primary contests. The likely race is expected to be closely contested, with polls showing Biden trailing Trump by two points, according to Real Clear Politics’ polling average.
Contra
Experts have cautioned against reading into the candidates’ verbal slip-ups on the campaign trail, arguing they can’t necessarily be attributed to old age. “We make mistakes. The probability of slip-ups rises as we get older. That has nothing to do with judgment,” S. Jay Olshansky, a professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Illinois at Chicago, told Reuters, adding “Someone commenting on Trump turning right when he should have turned left? Big deal. Tripping? Join the club. A misspoken word? It happens to all of us. None of us would survive a 24/7 camera.”
Chief Critic
Biden, who has a penchant for gaffes dating back to his 36 years in the Senate, has argued his age is symbolic of his decades of experience, telling reporters in response to the Hur report “I know what the hell I am doing.” He released results of his annual physical exam last week that found he is “a healthy, active, robust 81-year-old male, who remains fit” to serve as president, White House physician Dr. Kevin O’Connor wrote. The test did not include a cognitive exam, something White House Press Secretary Karine Jean Pierre argued wasn’t necessary, telling reporters “he passes a cognitive test every day,” referring to the rigors of the presidency. Trump, meanwhile, has claimed he purposely confuses Obama and Biden and Haley and Pelosi, claiming Haley and Pelosi are “interchangeable” and alluding to the unfounded right-wing conspiracy that Obama is secretly pulling the strings at the White House.
Surprising Fact
Trump and his allies have repeatedly called for Biden to undergo cognitive testing, but it’s unlikely any attempts to mandate the tests would pass legal muster, based on the qualifications laid out in the Constitution for holding the office of the presidency. Trump has said repeatedly he’s “aced” two cognitive exams, but he has not released the formal results of either report.
