📰 NEWS FLASH: Fresh assessments point to increasing moments of strain as Trump confronts the physical realities of aging in office ⚡.NH

Shorter Days, Signs of Fatigue: Trump Faces Realities of Aging in Office

President Trump has always used his stamina and energy as a political strength. But that image is getting harder for him to sustain.

Mr. Trump, 79, is the oldest person to be elected to the presidency.Credit…Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times

By Katie Rogers and Dylan Freedman

Katie Rogers is a White House correspondent who has covered both of President Trump’s terms. Dylan Freedman analyzed Mr. Trump’s public schedules and social media posts.

The day before Halloween, President Trump landed at Joint Base Andrews after spending nearly a week in Japan and South Korea. He was then whisked to the White House, where he passed out candy to trick-or-treaters. Allies crowed over the president’s stamina: “This man has been nonstop for DAYS!” one wrote online.

A week later, Mr. Trump appeared to doze off during an event in the Oval Office.

With headline-grabbing posts on social media, combative interactions with reporters and speeches full of partisan red meat, Mr. Trump can project round-the-clock energy, virility and physical stamina. Now at the end of his eighth decade, Mr. Trump and the people around him still talk about him as if he is the Energizer Bunny of presidential politics.

The reality is more complicated: Mr. Trump, 79, is the oldest person to be elected to the presidency, and he is aging. To pre-empt any criticism about his age, he often compares himself to President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who at 82 was the oldest person to hold the office, and whose aides took measures to shield his growing frailty from the public, including by tightly managing his appearances.

Mr. Trump has hung a photo of an autopen in a space where Mr. Biden’s portrait would otherwise be, and disparages his predecessor’s physicality often.

“He sleeps all the time — during the day, during the night, on the beach,” Mr. Trump said about Mr. Biden last week, adding: “I’m not a sleeper.”

Subscribe to The Times to read as many articles as you like.

Katie Rogers is a White House correspondent for The Times, reporting on President Trump.

Dylan Freedman is a machine-learning engineer and journalist working on a team at The Times that leverages A.I. for reporting.