Reuters/Ipsos poll: Most Americans say Trump is acting inconsistently because of his age
Six in 10 Americans believe President Donald Trump is becoming more incoherent as he gets older. This includes a significant number of Republicans, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll.
The six-day survey ended on Monday, just a day before the 79-year-old president delivers his annual State of the Union address to Congress on Tuesday.
The speech is being closely watched after Trump has been lashing out at lawmakers and judges for a month.
Sixty-one percent of those surveyed said they think Trump is becoming more irrelevant as he gets older. A breakdown by party shows that 89 percent of Democrats, 30 percent of Republicans and 64 percent of independents hold that view of Trump.
White House spokesman Davis Ingle called the poll results an example of “false and reckless rhetoric.” He said Trump’s “sharpness, unmatched energy and unprecedented ability to connect with others set him apart from his predecessor, Democratic leader Joe Biden.”
Trump’s overall approval rating has seen little change in recent months. About 40 percent of respondents in the new poll approve of his job as president, up 2 percentage points from earlier this month.
Trump’s approval rating was relatively high early in his presidency, when 47 percent approved of his job as president. His popularity rating has remained stable in opinion polls at one to two percentage points since April last year.
Concerns about aging leadership
Most Americans believe the country's political leadership is too old. Nearly 79 percent of respondents to the survey agreed that elected officials in Washington, D.C. are too old to represent most Americans.
The average age of members of the U.S. Senate is currently about 64 years old, and the average age of members of the House of Representatives is about 58.
Democrats are more likely to favor younger politicians, with 58 percent saying that the top Democrat in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, at 75, is too old to serve in government.
Trump was sworn in for a second term in January 2025 at age 78, the oldest president in U.S. history. Since then, he has been rapidly rolling out policies and plans, including imposing steep tariffs on goods from many countries and deploying federal agents across the country to crack down on illegal immigration.
Trump is often seen venting his anger in public on various issues. Last week, Trump said he felt deeply humiliated after the conservative U.S. Supreme Court struck down many of his tariffs as illegal.
Trump then imposed new tariffs. Trump claimed he was able to do so under a different legal authority.
There was also discussion about the age of Trump's predecessor and former Democratic President Joe Biden. It was said that he lost his mental acuity with age.
Biden ended his term as president at the age of 82. He became the oldest president in U.S. history to leave office. Trump is on track to surpass that record. He will turn 80 next June.
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