US President Donald Trump tweeted an image Tuesday of his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, edited onto the body of an elderly person sitting in a wheelchair, endorsing him for “Resident” of a retirement home.
The image showed a room full of elderly wheelchair users with Biden’s face superimposed on one of them. Biden is 77, Trump is 74.
Despite being only a few years apart, Trump and his campaign have invested big in trying to cast Biden as too old for the job. Trump has repeatedly called him “sleepy” and “stupid.” He’s seized on the former vice president’s speech issues and gaffes to claim he has dementia.
Trump has been haemorrhaging support from senior voters in the polls, due in part to his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, which carries higher risks for older people. Trump had a 9-percentage-point advantage with voters 65 and older in the 2016 election against Democrat Hillary Clinton, according to the Pew Research Center, but numerous polls now indicate Biden leads Trump with that group three weeks ahead of the November 3 election.
A recent national Fox News survey found Biden had a narrow lead with likely voters 65 and older. A CNN poll found Biden was up by 21 percentage points, with 60% for Biden and 39% for Trump.
HuffPost has reached out to the Biden campaign for comment on Trump’s tweet.
At a Florida campaign event on Tuesday, Biden told potential voters at a senior citizen community centre that Trump’s careless remarks about the coronavirus affecting “virtually nobody” show he doesn’t care about them.
“To Donald Trump, it’s simple, not a joke, you’re expendable. You’re forgettable. You’re virtually nobody. That’s how he sees seniors. That’s how he sees you,” Biden said.
The Trump camp has courted seniors with an eight-figure ad campaign in swing states. Last week, Trump tweeted a rambling video addressed to “my favourite people in the world, the seniors,” promising them a free Covid-19 “cure.”
While some Trump supporters appeared to find the president’s tweet funny, critics piled on. Some called it ageist, and others said it was a strange move for a candidate to further alienate a voting demographic whose support he has been losing.