Is There An Age Limit For President? Not Right Now
President Joe Biden’s recent fall off his bike has got many on social media talking. At 79, Biden is the oldest U.S. President. Is there an age limit for President?
June 20 2022, Published 1:57 p.m. ET
President Joe Biden’s recent fall off his bike has got many on social media talking about the POTUS’ age. At 79, Biden is the oldest President the U.S. has ever had. Is there an age limit for President?
Although there’s a minimum age requirement for the President, which is 35 years old, there is no restriction on how old is old to be Commander in Chief. Ronald Reagan was once considered the oldest person elected President. Reagan was elected just eight days before his 70th birthday. He was 77 when he left office after serving two terms.
Trump and Biden are two of the oldest U.S. Presidents in history.
Donald Trump took the record for the oldest President from Reagan when he was inaugurated in 2017 at age 70 (and 220 days). But Biden broke Trump’s age record when he was inaugurated in 2021 at the age of 78.
By the end of Biden’s four-year term, he will be 82 years old. If elected for another four years, he could be 86 years old by the time he leaves office. That exceeds the average life expectancy of men in the U.S., which is about 78 years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Theodore Roosevelt is the youngest President on record.
The youngest person to serve as POTUS was Theodore Roosevelt, who was just shy of his 43rd birthday at his inauguration. John F. Kennedy was the second youngest President. He was 43 years and 236 days old at his inauguration.
Within the past 20 years, Barack Obama was the youngest President. He was 47 when he was inaugurated.
Congress members are also older.
Those serving in the 117th Congress are also the oldest U.S. representatives have been, on average, in at least 20 years. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is 82, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is 80.
The oldest sitting Congress member is California Senator Diane Feinstein, who turns 89 this month.
There is some discussion on setting age limits for President.
Over the years, there has been some talk about setting a limit on how old a person can be to be President. Age limits were a topic of discussion surrounding the 2020 Presidential race, with several septuagenarian candidates running for office, including Biden, Trump, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren.
“…electing individuals in their mid- to late 70s, with all the demands and pressures of today’s office, is more a roll of the dice than we ought to be comfortable with,” wrote Gary Schmitt in the 2020 op-ed piece “Why We Need a Constitutional Age Limit for President” in The American Interest.
Americans want Presidential age limits.
Americans tend to agree that there should be an age limit for elected officials. A YouGov poll found that 58 percent of Americans support age limits while 21 percent disagree.
Most of those who support age limits believe the age cutoff should be at 70 years old, the YouGov poll found.
