Former President Donald Trump said he is all for mental competency tests for presidential candidates but doesn’t think there should be an age limit.
Mr. Trump, 77, told NBC News in a “Meet the Press” interview that he thinks “testing would be a good thing.”
“I’m all for testing,” he said in the segment that aired Sunday. “I frankly think testing would be a good thing. A lot of people say it’s unconstitutional to do it. But I would be for testing, to test to make sure everything’s fine.”
His comments came amid increasing speculation about cognitive decline with President Biden, who is 80. Mr. Trump, the front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination next year, said he doesn’t think that age matters as much for a president, but level of competency does.
“I don’t think Biden’s too old,” he said. “But I think he’s incompetent, and that’s a bigger problem.”
Mr. Biden is the oldest president in the nation’s history to be elected. He was 78 when sworn into office.
Mr. Trump said that it doesn’t concern him that he will be nearing his 80s if elected come 2024, because his mother and father lived “much longer than that.” He would be 78 when he gets sworn in if elected in 2024, the same age as Mr. Biden was.
“Some of the greatest world leaders have been in their 80s,” he said. “It’s really a level of competency, not age.”
Mr. Trump expressed the same sentiment on SiriusXM’s “The Megyn Kelly Show” last week.
“Age is interesting because some people are very sharp and some people do lose it, but you lose it at 40 and 50 also,” He said. “But no, he’s not too old at all. He’s grossly incompetent.”
Recent polls have asked voters whether they believe Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump are too old to serve effectively. A poll by the Wall Street Journal found that 73% of voters said Mr. Biden is too old to run for reelection in 2024, while 47% thought the same about Mr. Trump.
In both interviews, Mr. Trump cited his friend Bernie Marcus, 94, as someone who is older, but still mentally sharp. Mr. Marcus is the co-founder of Home Depot.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.