“Grumpy old men”. It’s usually a derogatory term to describe the grandpas, dads or retirees of the world. But it’s now being used as a major campaign slogan against Biden and Trump, by Trump’s only surviving contender, Nikki Haley.

This is nothing new. Biden’s age has been weaponised for years, and to a lesser degree, so has Trump’s. Is it valid criticism, or is it ageism?

US President Joe Biden and his predecessor, Donald Trump.Credit: AP

Biden has consistently been described by his political rivals and their supporters as “senile” and “mentally unfit” over the years, despite having a clean bill of health. This has escalated recently with a Department of Justice report into Biden’s retention of classified documents describing Biden as likely to come across as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory”.

Biden is infamous for his gaffes, including just the other day referring to the Egyptian president as the leader of Mexico. His recent gaffes have been attributed to his age, despite there being decades of evidence that he’s gaffe-prone. Time has a list of Biden’s top 10 gaffes, for instance, noting that the president has “throughout his decades of public service … earned a reputation for often saying the wrong thing at the wrong time”.

And when Biden forgot the exact dates of things that happened in his vice presidency (again in the Department of Justice Report), and slipped up some stairs in 2023, it was seen as proof by many that he was over the hill. (I’ll just pause here and note that I slip up stairs regularly and forget what I had for breakfast yesterday and I’m 34.)

Trump, who was the oldest president at inauguration before Biden surpassed him, continues to attract headlines about his age. “Has anyone noticed that Trump is really old?” The Atlantic asked recently. This is the case even amid much more salacious stories about Trump, including about the 91 criminal charges he is facing and the $US83 million he has been ordered to pay a woman he sexually assaulted and defamed.

So when we are critiquing presidential candidates, and other people in positions of power, should their age come into it?

Kylie Jenner, 26, faced ageist criticism over her appearance at Paris Fashion Week, including comments online that she looked older than Jennifer Lopez, 54. Credit: Getty Images

I’m not suggesting we go soft on powerful people. Biden and Trump are ripe for criticism – their values, actions, and policies range from questionable, to racist, to ruinous – especially Trump’s. And we should be asking why it is so common for US political leaders to be older.