The bounce in Donald Trump’s step — along with his money and his hair — have until now obscured a significant part of Trump’s bio: Donald Trump will turn 70 next year. That makes him the oldest candidate on the GOP stage by far. And Trump’s age — as anyone with opinionated grandparents would tell you — explains as much about his political philosophy as his class or wealth: the America Donald Trump grew up in is gone. That explains why he sometimes sounds more like a character in “Sh*t My Dad Says” than a polished pol seeking to represent a diverse and vibrant country.
For perspective, Donald Trump is old enough to be Barack Obama’s father. Of course Trump would have had needed to be precocious, fathering Obama as a very young man. But Trump has always claimed to be precocious — and young fathers aren’t unusual in tribal Kenya, where Trump insists Obama was born. The front-runner Trump became more of a target for his rivals during the second GOP debate — and even when he tried to be courtly, he sounded like he was from another era. Calling Carly Fiorina a “beautiful woman” Trump neglected the opportunity to call her an “accomplished” woman. That’s what an astute pol in 2015 would have done.
