Like him or not, former President Donald Trump deserves credit for mastering the art of the nickname. Some of his nicknames hinge on the physical — “Little Marco” and “sloppy Chris Christie” — while others are more abstract — “crooked Hillary” or “Pocahontis.”
Trump is especially good at the malapropisms, “Ron Desanctimonious,” “Gavin Newscum,” “Jeff Flakey.” But among the crowded field of undesirable nicknames, one stands out — “sleepy Joe.”
As soon as Trump first used the nickname, it stuck, and various incidents reinforced it in the minds of Americans. Numerous videos of President Joe Biden looking confused, slipping and falling, or walking away from press conferences in a confused manner further strengthened the rhetoric that Biden is simply too old, and too “sleepy.” And the rhetoric worked. In February, 2024, 86% of Americans said they felt that President Biden was too old to serve another term, according to ABC News.
Since the beginning of the 2024 election cycle, Trump and Republicans have made a huge deal of Biden’s senility and advanced age. But, in late July, Biden shocked the nation by dropping out.
The much younger Democratic candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris, just turned 60 years old. Meanwhile, Trump turned 78 this year, and the Democrats have decided to flip the script on the Trump and the Republicans.
After Biden dropped out, Trump became the oldest presidential candidate in U.S. history.
Since Harris accepted the nomination, Democrats have gone on the offensive, making a point to emphasize Trump’s old age and erratic behavior. For example, last week a Trump town hall in Pennsylvania took a bizarre turn after Trump ended the Q&A section short after a medical emergency occurred in the crowd and then bopped to music for 40 minutes.
Commenting on this strange town hall performance, Biden said that Trump had “snapped” and become “unhinged,” according to USA Today.
Recently former President Obama and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz took shots at former President Trump over his age at a rally in Madison’s Alliant Energy Center.
“You’d be worried if your grandpa were acting like this,” Obama said, referring to Trump’s excessively long and sometimes rambling speeches.
Walz derided Trump for his old age multiple times at the same rally, saying that the former president lacks stamina and has been rambling even more than usual recently, according to a live broadcast of the rally.
Walz also snuck in a dig at Trump’s old age when discussing social security at the Madison rally.
“He doesn’t give a damn if his social security check shows up–he has been qualified for social security for a number of years by the way too,” Walz said.
In a hypocritical, yet clever strategy, the Democrats have effectively flipped the age argument on its head and used it to attack Trump. The Democrats tried for all of Biden’s presidency to shake his nickname and the idea that he was senile and unfit for office.
With Harris at the helm, Democrats have turned this rhetoric against Republicans and borrowed heavily from the anti-Biden playbook. Now it is Trump who is senile, confused and not fit to be president.
