Now that President Joe Biden, at 81 the oldest serving president in U.S. history, has dropped his reelection bid, Donald Trump, 78, is the one who is seeing eroding confidence on whether he can fulfill his duties as president if elected, a poll released Tuesday showed.
A DailyMail.com poll of 1,054 likely voters taken from Aug 7-8 showed significant drops in public opinion regarding Trump's fitness for office compared to a similar poll taken in March, when Trump was the younger of the two main presidential challengers and there were more concerns about Biden's declining cognitive ability.
But now Trump is the oldest candidate, and his Democrat challenger, Vice President Kamala Harris, is 59. In the latest poll, 48% said they are confident that Trump can fully digest his national security briefings, compared with 54% in the March poll.
In other results:
- 58% said they were confident Trump could make it through a one-hour meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, compared with 65% in the March poll.
- 50% said they were confident Trump could keep attention during a meeting, compared with 56% in March.
- 46% said they were confident Trump could remember names of key staff, compared with 54% in March.
- 49% said they were confident Trump could make decisions and stay alert during a nuclear emergency, compared with 56% in March.
- 51% said they were confident Trump could stay alive for his four-year term if elected, compared with 54% in March.
James Johnson, co-founder of J.L. Partners, the polling firm that conducted the survey, told the Daily Mail the issue should be concerning for the Trump campaign, although it had not yet reached the sort of level that could end his presidential run.
"With Biden out of the race, the focus on age has moved onto Donald Trump," Johnson said. "And voters do harbor some concerns about that, as our poll shows. There is, though, a big but. Unlike with Biden, those concerns never come up unprompted in focus groups. They are not top of mind and remember, this is a guy who was standing waving a defiant fist while covered in blood just a few weeks ago.
"That represents a lot of things, but infirmity isn't one of them."