Joe Biden turns 80 on Sunday, becoming the first octogenarian president in the history of the United States. He will celebrate his birthday with a brunch hosted by his wife Jill, a celebration that was complemented this weekend by his niece’s wedding on Saturday at the White House, Reuters reported, citing News.ro.

With Biden already the oldest person in office, the race for the White House in 2024 will enter uncharted territory in the United States.

America’s nearly 250-year-old democracy celebrates youth, but millions of Americans, including presidents, are now working well beyond the traditional retirement age of 65.

Ronald Reagan was 77 when he left the White House, but Biden will be 86 by the end of his second four-year term if he wins.

His main potential Republican challenger, Donald Trump, will be 82 at the end of his second term if he wins in 2024.

The United States as a society is aging, and people are working into old age. The population aged 65 and over is projected to nearly double from 52 million in 2018 to 95 million by 2060.

According to projections by the Population Reference Bureau, by 2026, more than one in four men over the age of 65 will be working.

What Americans say

Some Americans are concerned about the advanced age of the two most likely candidates in 2024.

According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted Nov. 8 and 9, 71 percent of Democrats believe Biden “has a sharp mind and is up for the challenge,” with 46 percent saying he may not be up to the task of running in 2024.

A quarter of Republicans, 26 percent, think Trump may not run until 2024 because of his age.

Political affiliation aside, 68% of people polled think Biden may not be ready to run in two years, and 49% say the same about Trump.

The poll found that about 86 percent of Americans believe the age limit for running for president should be 75 or younger.

Critics and supporters of the age of Biden

Biden’s occasional verbal stumbles and tendency to go off schedule during live appearances have been taken by his Republican critics as evidence that he is too old for the job.

His supporters say the president, who overcame a childhood stutter, has struggled with public speaking for decades.

Biden’s second-term prospects were boosted last week when Democrats performed better than expected in the congressional and gubernatorial midterm elections.

Asked about concerns about Biden’s age ahead of his 80th birthday, the White House said his recent performance speaks for itself.

“As then-candidate Biden said in 2019, watch him. Since then, he has won the most votes in American history, delivered unprecedented job creation, forced large corporations to pay their fair share of taxes, empowered Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices, and signed the most significant gun reform and investment in 30 years. in infrastructure since the 1950s,” replied spokesman Andrew Bates.

He said Biden’s performance was “the most successful legislative achievement of any president since Lyndon Johnson.”

“Keep watching,” he added.

Some Biden supporters said they appreciate the Democrats’ success under Biden, but remain uncertain about a possible next term.

“I think he’s done a great job in the time he’s had. What worries me is that a person over 80 years old will become president. I can’t think of a more demanding job than this,” said Illinois resident Paul Klenk.

Others said criticism of Biden’s age was discriminatory.

“Some 60-year-olds should not even come close to political power. I believe that satirizing and mocking him is discriminatory. Let’s look at the person,” 86-year-old Catherine Stimpson from New York said in an interview.

Asked about his birthday in a recent interview on MSNBC, Biden responded with something anyone over 50 might be familiar with: disbelief. “I can’t even say how old I will be. I can’t even say that,” he said.

Biden said questions about his age are “perfectly legitimate” but he intends to run for another term.

Aging America, aging leaders

The outgoing Congress is one of the oldest in U.S. history, with more than half of the House of Representatives and two-thirds of the Senate coming from baby boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, according to Pew. research.

Some members are years ahead of Biden and Trump. Speaker of the Parliament Nancy Pelosi is 82 years old. The leader of the Republicans in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, turned 80 years old. Last week, 89-year-old Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa won another six-year term.

Americans are not always comfortable with this situation. Two-thirds of respondents support an upper age limit for federal officials, including the president, members of Congress and Supreme Court justices, a Reuters poll showed.

However, Biden is not even among the top 10 oldest current world leaders, headed by 89-year-old Cameroonian President Paul Biya.

“There is a reason why other societies look to their elders for wisdom and guidance. That’s because they have experiences that can’t be ignored,” said Deborah Kado, co-director of the Longevity Center at Stanford University.

Kado and other experts on aging said they see no signs that Biden is unable to fulfill his duties.

Stewart Jay Olshansky, an aging expert at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said Biden may belong to a subset of older Americans who are “super-old” with the mental capacity of people decades younger.

“Age has been weaponized and people on the other side, no matter what side you’re dealing with, will always try to say there’s something wrong with that person,” he said.

“Those of us who study age say, ‘Stop using age as a weapon.’

The Reuters/Ipsos poll, conducted online in English across the United States, collected responses from 1,003 adults, including 468 Democrats and 342 Republicans. It has a confidence interval – a measure of precision – of plus or minus 4 percentage points.