🇺🇸💼🧓Da Complicated Reality of Being America’s Oldest President 🇺🇸

President Biden stay asking voters fo’ keep him in da White House until age 86, bringing back attention to an issue dat polls show troubles plenny Americans. 😮🗳️🏛️

Had one time dis past winta’ when President Biden stay knocked up at 3 a.m. while on one trip to Asia an’ somebody tell him dat one missile wen hit Poland, causing one whole panic dat Russia might have wen expand da war in Ukraine to one NATO ally. Within hours in da middle of da night, Mr. Biden wen talk to his top advisers, call da president of Poland an’ da NATO secretary general, an’ bring together odda world leaders fo’ handle da crisis. 🌍🚀🤔

An’ den, had one time just few weeks ago when da president stay hosting kids fo’ Take Your Child to Work Day an’ he wen get mix up tryin’ fo’ list his grandchildren. “So, let me see. I get one in New York, two in Philadelphia — or is it three? No, three, cuz I get one granddaughter who is — I don’t know. You’re confusing me.” He also wen forget da last country he wen visit an’ da name of one favorite movie. 🎉👧📝

Da two Joe Bidens stay live side by side inside dis same elderly president: Sharp an’ wise wen da moment critical, da result of plenny years of experience, able fo’ rise to da occasion even in da middle of da night fo’ face one dangerous world. But, he stay little bit slower, little bit softer, little bit harder fo’ hear, little bit more unsure wen he walk, little bit more likely fo’ have occasional memory lapses dat feel familiar to anyone who wen reach their ninth decade o’ get one parent who wen. 🤷‍♂️🤔🕺

Da complicated reality of America’s oldest president wen show itself on Thursday wen Congress wen approve one deal dat Mr. Biden wen work out fo’ avoid one national default. Even Speaker Kevin McCarthy wen testify dat Mr. Biden stay “very professional, very smart, very tough” during dea negotiations. But right before da voting wen start, Mr. Biden wen trip ovah one sandbag at da Air Force Academy commencement, wen fall to da ground. Da video wen go viral, his supporters wen cringe, an’ his critics wen jump on top. 😲🏛️💥

Anybody can trip at any age, but wen you one 80-year-old president, it always goin’ raise unwanted questions. If was somebody else, da signs of aging maybe wouldn’t be so noticeable. But Mr. Biden, he stay da leader of da most powerful nation in da world an’ he wen just start one campaign fo’ ask voters fo’ keep him in da White House until age 86, which make dis issue even more noticeable an’ cause plenny anxiety fo’ party leaders. 😳🤔📉

Da picture dat emerge aftah months of interviews wit’ plenny current an’ former officials an’ oddas who wen spend time wit’ him stay somewhere between da partisan cartoon dat da Republicans paint of him, dat he one addled old man who easy fo’ manipulate, an’ da image dat his staff try fo’ spread of him, dat he one president who always get on aviator shades an’ stay in control when he lead da world an’ govern wit’ strength. 🎭🖼️💪

Wat we seeing is somebody who wen slow down wit’ age in ways dat way more obvious den just da graying hair dat most recent presidents wen get wen dey stay in office. Mr. Biden sometimes wen mess up his words an’ look older den before cuz his walk get stiff an’ his voice stay getting thin. 🧓🚶‍♂️🗣️

But da people who stay wit’ him all da time, even da ones who against him, dey say he still sharp an’ commanding in private meetings. Diplomats get stories fo’ share about trips to places like Ukraine, Japan, Egypt, Cambodia, an’ Indonesia, an’ how he stay outlastin’ his younger colleagues. Democratic lawmakers point to one long list of accomplishments fo’ show dat he still can do da job. ✈️🤝💼

His verbal miscues ain’t nottin’ new, his friends say; he always had trouble wit’ his words an’ he was one “gaffe machine” long before he wen reach his golden years. His advisers say his judgment stay as good as evah. So many of dem use da phrase “sharp as a tack” fo’ describe him dat it done turn into one kinda mantra. 🗣️🚀📚

Mr. Biden say age stay one legit issue, but he believe his longevity one asset, not one liability. “You say I’m ancient?” he said at da White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in April. “I say I’m wise.” 🧓🎙️🧠

Still, not too many people can ignore da changes in one of da nation’s most public figures. When he stay vice president one dozen years ago, Mr. Biden stay gettin’ in all kind of energetic squirt gun battles each summah wit’ da children of his aides an’ da reporters. But more den one decade latah, he stay shufflin’ stiffly across da Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., fo’ commemorate Bloody Sunday. 💦🤼‍♂️🚶‍♂️

Polls show dat da president’s age stay one major concern fo’ Americans, even da Democrats. In one recent New York Times focus group, plenny voters who wen support Mr. Biden in 2020 wen express worry, wit’ one person sayin’, “I’ve just seen da blank stare at times, when he’s either giving one speech or addressing one crowd. It seems like he loses his train of thought.” 😟📊🗳️

Da unease about Mr. Biden’s age stay all ova’ da Democratic circles. One big-shot Wall Street Democrat, who like oddas no can talk openly cause dey no like offend da White House, wen mention dat among party donors, dat stay all dey talking about. At one small dinner dis year wit’ former Democratic senators an’ governors, all from Mr. Biden’s generation, everybody at da table wen agree dat he stay too old fo’ run again. Local leaders even call up da White House fo’ check on his health. 🤫📞🏢

In private, da officials admit dat dey make certain accommodations fo’ not ova’work one aging president. His staff make most of his public appearances happen between noon an’ 4 p.m. an’ give him da weekends fo’ himself as much as possible. 🕛🗓️🏛️

One study of Mr. Biden’s schedule, based on data compiled by Axios an’ expanded by The New York Times, show dat Mr. Biden follow one similar morning routine as his former boss, Barack Obama. Neither of dem have too many public events before 10 a.m. — just 4 percent fo’ Mr. Obama in his last year an’ 5 percent fo’ Mr. Biden in his first two an’ a half years. But da big difference come in da evenin’. Mr. Obama stay twice as likely fo’ have public events aftah 6 p.m. compared to Mr. Biden, 17 percent to 9 percent. 📆⏰🌄

Da aides make sure fo’ limit da president’s exposure to news media interviews, so he no can make any politically damaging mistakes. He only wen give one fourth of da interviews dat Donald J. Trump did in da same time period, an’ one fifth of Mr. Obama’s interviews — an’ he nevah talk to reporters from one major newspaper at all. Mr. Biden nevah wen give one interview to da news department of The Times, an’ dat only happened twice in da past 100 years wit’ Ronald Reagan an’ Richard M. Nixon. Da White House officials no give da media da chance fo’ question Mr. Biden’s doctor, like odda presidents did. In February, da White House physician, Kevin C. O’Connor, wen put out one five-page letter sayin’ dat Mr. Biden stay “fit for duty” an’ do all his responsibilities wit’out any exemptions o’ accommodations. 💬📰🏥

But da letter also mention dat da president’s walk stay stiff due to “wear an’ tear” changes in his spine, an’ because his hamstrings an’ calves stay tight. Da letter say dat no can find any signs of neurological disorders like stroke, multiple sclerosis, o’ Parkinson’s disease. He takes medicine fo’ atrial fibrillation, cholesterol, heartburn, asthma, an’ allergies. 🦴💊🩺

Just like plenny odda people his age, Mr. Biden tend fo’ repeat phrases an’ tell da same old stories dat maybe no so true. He can be kinda quirky; when kids come visit, he might just grab one book by William Butler Yeats off his desk an’ start readin’ Irish poetry to dem. 📚🍀🗣️

But at da same time, he stay fit an’ in shape. He exercise five days a week an’ no drink alcohol. He even show some impressive stamina, like when he wen fly to Poland, den take one nine-hour train ride fo’ one secret visit to Kyiv, spend plenny hours on da ground, den endure an odda nine-hour train ride an’ one flight to Warsaw. One study by Mr. Biden’s aides show dat he travel little bit more in da first few months of his third year in office den Mr. Obama wen do in his. ✈️🏋️‍♂️🥦

“Does he ramble? Yes, he does,” said Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey, one Democrat who solidly believe dat Mr. Biden no too old fo’ be president. “Has he always rambled? Yes, he has. Public an’ private. He’s da same guy. He’s literally — I’m not saying dis lightly. I no know anybody else in my life who stay so much da same guy privately as he is publicly.” 🗣️🏛️🚶‍♂️

Some of his friends wen get little bit upset about all da focus on his age. “I think da reason dis stay one issue is primarily cuz da media stay talking about it all da time,” said former Senator Ted Kaufman, one longtime adviser from Delaware. “I no see anyting in my dealings wit’ him dat age stay one problem. He’s done more den any president in my lifetime.” 🤝📺👥

Andrew Bates, one White House spokesman, wen point out dat da Republican hard-liners stay grumblin’ cuz Mr. Biden stay outsmartin’ Mr. McCarthy in da fiscal deal. “It’s telling dat da same extreme MAGA members of Congress who’ve been talking about his age complained dis week dat he outsmarted dem on da budget agreement,” Mr. Bates said. 💬🎙️🤔

Da question of Mr. Biden’s age no stay all by itself, of course. Mr. Trump, who da most likely Republican opponent, only four years younger den Mr. Biden an’ was da oldest president in history until Mr. Biden wen replace him. If Mr. Trump stay win next year, he go be 82 at da end of his term, even oldah den Mr. Biden go be at da end of dis one. 🤯👴🔄

While in office, Mr. Trump stay cause plenty concerns about his mental sharpness an’ physical condition. He no exercise, he eat plenny cheeseburgers an’ steak, an’ he officially weigh 244 pounds, which classify him as obese fo’ his height. 🍔🏋️‍♂️⚖️

He wen stop show up at da Oval Office until 11 o’ 11:30 a.m. every day cuz he say he stay too busy wit’ mornin’ meetings. Instead, he stay in da residence watchin’ TV, makin’ phone calls, o’ sendin’ out controversial tweets. During one appearance at da U.S. Military Academy at West Point, he had trouble liftin’ one glass of water an’ look like he had trouble walkin’ down one small ramp. 📺📱🚶‍♂️

Da most noticeable ting stay Mr. Trump’s cognitive performance. He stay unpredictable an’ like fo’ ramble; experts notice dat he stay less articulate an’ his vocabulary wen shrink from his younger days. Some aides wen say privately dat Mr. Trump stay struggle fo’ process information an’ tell da difference between fact an’ fiction. His second chief of staff, John F. Kelly, even wen buy one book fo’ analyze Mr. Trump’s mental health fo’ bettah understand him, an’ few cabinet secretaries dat stay concerned about his mental fitness wen talk about usin’ da 25th Amendment fo’ remove him from office. 🧠📚📉

But maybe cuz Mr. Trump stay loud an’ full of energy, his issues no stay associated wit’ age in da public mind as much as Mr. Biden’s. In one recent Reuters/Ipsos poll, 73 percent say Mr. Biden stay too old fo’ office, compared to 51 percent who say da same about Mr. Trump. 📊🤔🤷‍♂️

Mr. Biden stay manage his day wit’ more discipline den his predecessor. Jill Biden, who teach at Northern Virginia Community College, wake up ’round 6 a.m. while da president wake up one hour latah, like he wen say. Mr. Biden wen tell his aides dat sometimes dea cat wake him up in da middle of da night by walkin’ ‘cross his face. 😸🌙⏰

By 7:20 a.m., da first lady go work. Mr. Biden exercise at 8 a.m.; he get one Peloton bicycle in da residence an’ like fo’ watch shows like “Morning Joe” on MSNBC. He get to da Oval Office by 9 a.m. fo’ all da mornin’ meetings. Lunch time, dey rotate between salads, soups, an’ sandwiches. 🥗📺💼

Aftahnoon events, da president go back to da residence ’round 6:45 p.m. Fo’ dinner, he really enjoy pasta. In fact, one former official say dat when he travel, his aides make sure always get red sauce fo’ pasta fo’ end his day — even though he no like da salmon dat his wife try fo’ get him to eat. 🍝🥦🍷

From 8 p.m., da Bidens often sit in da livin’ room of da residence an’ read dea briefing books togeddah. Da first lady usually go sleep ’round 10:30 p.m., an’ da president follow half hour latah. 😴📚🏢

Da aides say it obvious dat he actually read da briefing books, ’cause he always ask questions dat get to da heart of da issue an’ challenge people. “There’s no one who is bettah at askin’ questions to get to da bottom of an issue, callin’ your bluff, askin’ da tough questions,” said Stefanie Feldman, da White House staff secretary. “He ask just as tough questions today as he did 10 years ago.” 🧐🤝📖

Some people wen travel wit’ him overseas even wen express amazement at his ability fo’ keep up. When Italy’s new leader wen ask fo’ one meetin’ while da president stay in Poland, he wen gladly agree fo’ add it to his already busy schedule. Durin’ one trip to Ireland, people wit’ him say he stay full of energy an’ like fo’ talk plenty on Air Force One instead of restin’. ✈️🌍📞

Still, aftah long days on da road, he wen skip dinner wit’ world leaders in Indonesia last year an’ again in Japan in May. Oddas who know him fo’ years wen say privately dat dey notice small changes. When he sit down, one former official say, he usually put one hand on his desk fo’ support himself an’ no bounce back up wit’ his old energy. 🍽️🛋️💪

Da reality is dat bein’ America’s oldest president come wit’ its challenges. Mr. Biden stay navigatin’ through da complexities of leadin’ one nation while facin’ da inevitable effects of agin’. Whether he can continue fo’ inspire confidence an’ deliver on his promises, while battlin’ da perception of bein’ too old, stay one question dat only time go answer. But fo’ now, he stay movin’ forward wit’ his own brand of resilience an’ determination. 🇺🇸💼🧓

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NOW IN ENGLISH

🇺🇸💼🧓 The Complicated Reality of Being America’s Oldest President

President Biden is asking voters to keep him in the White House until the age of 86, bringing back attention to an issue that polls show troubles plenty of Americans. 😮🗳️🏛️

There was one time this past winter when President Biden was woken up at 3 a.m. while on a trip to Asia, and somebody told him that a missile had hit Poland, causing a whole panic that Russia might have expanded the war in Ukraine to a NATO ally. Within hours in the middle of the night, Mr. Biden talked to his top advisers, called the president of Poland and the NATO secretary general, and brought together other world leaders to handle the crisis. 🌍🚀🤔

And then, there was one time just a few weeks ago when the president was hosting kids for Take Your Child to Work Day, and he got mixed up trying to list his grandchildren. “So, let me see. I have one in New York, two in Philadelphia — or is it three? No, three, because I have one granddaughter who is — I don’t know. You’re confusing me.” He also forgot the last country he visited and the name of a favorite movie. 🎉👧📝

The two Joe Bidens live side by side inside this same elderly president: Sharp and wise when the moment is critical, the result of plenty of years of experience, able to rise to the occasion even in the middle of the night to face a dangerous world. But, he is a little bit slower, a little bit softer, a little bit harder to hear, a little bit more unsure when he walks, a little bit more likely to have occasional memory lapses that feel familiar to anyone who has reached their ninth decade or had a parent who has. 🤷‍♂️🤔🕺

The complicated reality of America’s oldest president showed itself on Thursday when Congress approved a deal that Mr. Biden worked out to avoid a national default. Even Speaker Kevin McCarthy testified that Mr. Biden was “very professional, very smart, very tough” during their negotiations. But right before the voting started, Mr. Biden tripped over a sandbag at the Air Force Academy commencement, falling to the ground. The video went viral, his supporters cringed, and his critics jumped on top. 😲🏛️💥

Anybody can trip at any age, but when you are an 80-year-old president, it always raises unwanted questions. If it was somebody else, the signs of aging might not be so noticeable. But Mr. Biden, he is the leader of the most powerful nation in the world, and he just started a campaign to ask voters to keep him in the White House until the age of 86, which makes this issue even more noticeable and causes plenty of anxiety for party leaders. 😳🤔📉

The picture that emerges after months of interviews with plenty of current and former officials and others who have spent time with him is somewhere between the partisan cartoon that the Republicans paint of him, that he is an addled old man who is easy to manipulate, and the image that his staff tries to spread of him, that he is a president who always puts on aviator shades and stays in control when he leads the world and governs with strength. 🎭🖼️💪

What we are seeing is somebody who has slowed down with age in ways that are way more obvious than just the graying hair that most recent presidents have gotten while they were in office. Mr. Biden sometimes messes up his words and looks older than before because his walk gets stiff and his voice is getting thin. 🧓🚶‍♂️🗣️

But the people who are with him all the time, even the ones who are against him, they say he is still sharp and commanding in private meetings. Diplomats have stories to share about trips to places like Ukraine, Japan, Egypt, Cambodia, and Indonesia, and how he outlasts his younger colleagues. Democratic lawmakers point to a long list of accomplishments to show that he still can do the job. ✈️🤝💼

His verbal miscues are not new, his friends say; he has always had trouble with his words and he was a “gaffe machine” long before he reached his golden years. His advisers say his judgment is as good as ever. So many of them use the phrase “sharp as a tack” to describe him that it has turned into a kind of mantra. 🗣️🚀📚

Mr. Biden says age is a legitimate issue, but he believes his longevity is an asset, not a liability. “You say I’m ancient?” he said at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in April. “I say I’m wise.” 🧓🎙️🧠

Still, not too many people can ignore the changes in one of the nation’s most public figures. When he was vice president a dozen years ago, Mr. Biden was getting into all kinds of energetic squirt gun battles each summer with the children of his aides and the reporters. But more than a decade later, he is shuffling stiffly across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., to commemorate Bloody Sunday. 💦🤼‍♂️🚶‍♂️

Polls show that the president’s age is a major concern for Americans, even the Democrats. In a recent New York Times focus group, many voters who supported Mr. Biden in 2020 expressed worry, with one person saying, “I’ve just seen the blank stare at times, when he’s either giving a speech or addressing a crowd. It seems like he loses his train of thought.” 😟📊🗳️

The unease about Mr. Biden’s age is all over the Democratic circles. One big-shot Wall Street Democrat, who like others cannot talk openly because they do not want to offend the White House, mentioned that among party donors, that is all they are talking about. At a small dinner this year with former Democratic senators and governors, all from Mr. Biden’s generation, everybody at the table agreed that he is too old to run again. Local leaders even call up the White House to check on his health. 🤫📞🏢

In private, the officials admit that they make certain accommodations to not overwork an aging president. His staff makes most of his public appearances happen between noon and 4 p.m. and gives him the weekends for himself as much as possible. 🕛🗓️🏛️

A study of Mr. Biden’s schedule, based on data compiled by Axios and expanded by The New York Times, shows that Mr. Biden follows a similar morning routine as his former boss, Barack Obama. Neither of them has too many public events before 10 a.m. — just 4 percent for Mr. Obama in his last year and 5 percent for Mr. Biden in his first two and a half years. But the big difference comes in the evening. Mr. Obama is twice as likely to have public events after 6 p.m. compared to Mr. Biden, 17 percent to 9 percent. 📆⏰🌄

The aides make sure to limit the president’s exposure to news media interviews, so he cannot make any politically damaging mistakes. He has only given a fourth of the interviews that Donald J. Trump did in the same time period, and a fifth of Mr. Obama’s interviews — and he has never talked to reporters from a major newspaper at all. Mr. Biden has never given an interview to the news department of The Times, and that has only happened twice in the past 100 years with Ronald Reagan and Richard M. Nixon. The White House officials do not give the media the chance to question Mr. Biden’s doctor, like other presidents did. In February, the White House physician, Kevin C. O’Connor, put out a five-page letter saying that Mr. Biden is “fit for duty” and can fulfill all his responsibilities without any exemptions or accommodations. 💬📰🏥

But the letter also mentions that the president’s walk is stiff due to “wear and tear” changes in his spine, and because his hamstrings and calves are tight. The letter says that no signs of neurological disorders like stroke, multiple sclerosis, or Parkinson’s disease have been found. He takes medicine for atrial fibrillation, cholesterol, heartburn, asthma, and allergies. 🦴💊🩺

Just like many other people his age, Mr. Biden tends to repeat phrases and tell the same old stories that may not be entirely true. He can be kind of quirky; when kids come to visit, he might just grab a book by William Butler Yeats off his desk and start reading Irish poetry to them. 📚🍀🗣️

But at the same time, he is fit and in shape. He exercises five days a week and does not drink alcohol. He even shows some impressive stamina, like when he flew to Poland, then took a nine-hour train ride for a secret visit to Kyiv, spent plenty of hours on the ground, then endured another nine-hour train ride and a flight to Warsaw. A study by Mr. Biden’s aides shows that he traveled a little bit more in the first few months of his third year in office than Mr. Obama did in his. ✈️🏋️‍♂️🥦

“Does he ramble? Yes, he does,” said Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey, a Democrat who firmly believes that Mr. Biden is not too old to be president. “Has he always rambled? Yes, he has. Public and private. He’s the same guy. He’s literally — I’m not saying this lightly. I don’t know anybody else in my life who is so much the same guy privately as he is publicly.” 🗣️🏛️🚶‍♂️

Some of his friends have gotten a little bit upset about all the focus on his age. “I think the reason this is an issue is primarily because the media is talking about it all the time,” said former Senator Ted Kaufman, a longtime adviser from Delaware. “I don’t see anything in my dealings with him that age is a problem. He’s done more than any president in my lifetime.” 🤝📺👥

Andrew Bates, a White House spokesman, pointed out that the Republican hard-liners are grumbling because Mr. Biden outsmarted Mr. McCarthy in the fiscal deal. “It’s telling that the same extreme MAGA members of Congress who’ve been talking about his age complained this week that he outsmarted them on the budget agreement,” Mr. Bates said. 💬🎙️🤔

The question of Mr. Biden’s age does not stand alone, of course. Mr. Trump, who is the most likely Republican opponent, is only four years younger than Mr. Biden and was the oldest president in history until Mr. Biden replaced him. If Mr. Trump wins next year, he will be 82 at the end of his term, even older than Mr. Biden will be at the end of this one. 🤯👴🔄

While in office, Mr. Trump caused plenty of concerns about his mental sharpness and physical condition. He did not exercise, he ate plenty of cheeseburgers and steak, and officially weighed 244 pounds, which classified him as obese for his height. 🍔🏋️‍♂️⚖️

He stopped showing up at the Oval Office until 11 or 11:30 a.m. every day because he said he was too busy with morning meetings. Instead, he stayed in the residence watching TV, making phone calls, or sending out controversial tweets. During an appearance at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, he had trouble lifting a glass of water and looked like he had trouble walking down a small ramp. 📺📱🚶‍♂️

The most noticeable thing was Mr. Trump’s cognitive performance. He was unpredictable and liked to ramble; experts noticed that he was less articulate and his vocabulary had shrunk from his younger days. Some aides privately said that Mr. Trump struggled to process information and tell the difference between fact and fiction. His second chief of staff, John F. Kelly, even bought a book to analyze Mr. Trump’s mental health to better understand him, and a few cabinet secretaries who were concerned about his mental fitness talked about using the 25th Amendment to remove him from office. 🧠📚📉

But perhaps because Mr. Trump was loud and full of energy, his issues were not associated with age in the public mind as much as Mr. Biden’s. In a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll, 73 percent said Mr. Biden was too old for office, compared to 51 percent who said the same about Mr. Trump. 📊🤔🤷‍♂️

Mr. Biden manages his day with more discipline than his predecessor. Jill Biden, who teaches at Northern Virginia Community College, wakes up around 6 a.m. while the president wakes up an hour later, as he has said. Mr. Biden tells his aides that sometimes their cat wakes him up in the middle of the night by walking across his face. 😸🌙⏰

By 7:20 a.m., the first lady goes to work. Mr. Biden exercises at 8 a.m.; he has a Peloton bicycle in the residence and likes to watch shows like “Morning Joe” on MSNBC. He gets to the Oval Office by 9 a.m. for all the morning meetings. For lunch, they rotate between salads, soups, and sandwiches. 🥗📺💼

Afternoon events, the president goes back to the residence around 6:45 p.m. For dinner, he really enjoys pasta. In fact, one former official says that when he travels, his aides make sure he always gets red sauce for pasta to end his day — even though he doesn’t like the salmon that his wife tries to get him to eat. 🍝🥦🍷

From 8 p.m., the Bidens often sit in the living room of the residence and read their briefing books together. The first lady usually goes to sleep around 10:30 p.m., and the president follows half an hour later. 😴📚🏢

The aides say it is obvious that he actually reads the briefing books because he always asks questions that get to the heart of the issue and challenge people. “There’s no one who is better at asking questions to get to the bottom of an issue, calling your bluff, asking the tough questions,” said Stefanie Feldman, the White House staff secretary. “He asks just as tough questions today as he did 10 years ago.” 🧐🤝📖

Some people who have traveled with him overseas have expressed amazement at his ability to keep up. When Italy’s new leader asked for a meeting while the president was in Poland, he gladly agreed to add it to his already busy schedule. During a trip to Ireland, people with him say he was full of energy and liked to talk a lot on Air Force One instead of resting. ✈️🌍📞

Still, after long days on the road, he skipped dinner with world leaders in Indonesia last year and again in Japan in May. Others who have known him for years privately say they have noticed small changes. When he sits down, one former official says, he usually puts one hand on his desk to support himself and does not bounce back up with his old energy. 🍽️🛋️💪

The reality is that being America’s oldest president comes with its challenges. Mr. Biden is navigating through the complexities of leading a nation while facing the inevitable effects of aging. Whether he can continue to inspire confidence and deliver on his promises while battling the perception of being too old is a question that only time will answer. But for now, he is moving forward with his own brand of resilience and determination. 🇺🇸💼🧓