There are already age limits to serve as president or in Congress — but they’re a floor, not a ceiling.
By Olivier Knox
National Political Correspondent
The Washington Post
Americans overwhelmingly favor mental competency tests for politicians over 75 — and for the results to be made public — as well as imposing age limits on who can serve in the White House and Congress, according to a new poll that highlights deep misgivings about older leaders they nonetheless elect time and again.
In practice, that would mean acuity assessments for people like President Biden, 80, the oldest to get the job; former president Donald Trump, the runaway front-runner for the Republican nomination in 2024, 77; and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R.-Ky.), 81.
- Overall, 76 percent of adult Americans strongly or somewhat support the idea, though there’s a definite partisan gap: 70 percent of Democrats, 75 percent of independents, and 84 percent of Republicans like the notion, according to the poll from the Economist/YouGov.
Public reports from annual presidential physicals don’t include such a test. Trump claimed in 2020 that he had requested one and bragged about his performance. Former ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley, seeking the GOP presidential nomination, has promoted the idea of mental competency tests for politicians over 75. She is 51.
And former vice president Mike Pence won chuckles when he was asked about the idea in the first Republican primary debate, quipping: “It might be a good idea to have everybody in Washington, D.C., pass a mental and health test.”