He might have been trying to rally his supporters to action, but he looked more like he was just conceding to the realities of ageing
September 23, 2024 1:48 pm(Updated 1:51 pm)
Win or lose, Donald Trump will not be on the presidential ballot in 2028 – if you believe Donald Trump, that is.
The former and would-be president appeared to rule himself out of contention for another presidential run should he lose in 2024 in an interview on Sunday, and were he to win, term limits would – in theory at least – prevent him from seeking a third term. When it comes to a second Trump term, that makes 2024 the “now or never” moment.
The question is why has Trump chosen to say this now, and does he really mean it? When thinking about why Trump does what he does, it is often best to remember that at his very core he is a salesman, and generally a salesman of inferior goods.
It is a core part of the stock-in-trade of a huckster at a market, or someone pushing a discount on a shopping TV channel, to urge the audience to buy now, now, NOW, before the opportunity is missed – stocks can’t last, this price won’t be repeated, and so on.
Trump has never been shy to deploy such tactics, even as he runs for president: not only is he hawking out commemorative Trump memorabilia and his own currency, but his wife is selling Christmas ornaments.
Given that context, Trump might just be deploying a tool from the salesman’s arsenal to gee up his supporters. If they don’t pick Trump now, there won’t be another chance. The intention might be to fire up his supporters, to make sure that they go all out to get him into the White House this time. There is every chance he intends the idea that he won’t run again to be just another spin tactic.
The problem is that to many people, including some of his fans, it doesn’t really sound that way. Trump would be 82 in 2028, even older than Joe Biden is now, and the idea of him mustering up the energy for another successful run feels distant even on the maths alone.
But worse than that for Trump and his team is that he looks visibly older and more tired in 2024 than he ever did in 2020, let alone 2016. Trump has always been a ranter and a rambler, but when he goes off script now he increasingly seems genuinely confused, rather than someone engaged in taking the audience on a journey by the scenic route.
Trump seems more tired, and looks older – especially in moments where he’s seen without his favoured lighting, or when he’s wearing less makeup. The chances of him being able to keep up the façade for much longer seem slim. He might have been trying to rally his supporters to action, but he looked more like he was just conceding to the realities of ageing.
When Joe Biden was his opponent, Trump had obvious cover for all of this. Biden is three years older than Trump, and looked even more visibly older than he did four years ago – not unreasonably, given the strains of doing one of the world’s most high-pressure jobs in your ninth decade.
Biden’s decision to drop out left Trump as the old man of politics, and he’s proved too slow and tired to respond to that. His usual gift of finding the perfect attack lines on his opponents has deserted him, and he’s left railing at the unfairness of the switch. Trump has no one left to hide behind now – he is the oldest presidential candidate to appear on the ballot in America’s history.
Given all of this, Trump’s announcement – sincere or otherwise – that he won’t run again doesn’t look like a clever tactic, but another misstep by a candidate who can barely put one foot in front of another. Even some of his keenest supporters must be looking at him and thinking that it’s time for him to retire.
James Ball is political editor of The New European
