On the menu today: In the aftermath of the octogenarian President Joe Biden, and the soon-to-be-octogenarian current President Donald Trump, is it time for the United States to change the Constitution and enact a maximum age for certain government offices? Rahm Emanuel thinks so. The former ambassador to Japan, former mayor of Chicago, and former Obama White House chief of staff wants to be the 2028 Democratic presidential nominee, and yesterday at a liberal think tank, he argued that at age 75, people should leave top government jobs. That would cut short a lot of people’s presidential ambitions, including, ironically . . . Rahm Emanuel. Read on.
Thank You for Your Service, Up and Out
Likely 2028 Democratic presidential candidate Rahm Emanuel, speaking at the Center for American Progress yesterday, suggested that the U.S. should alter the Constitution to institute a maximum age for the presidency, cabinet, Congress, and the U.S. court system.
“When you’re 75, you can’t do that in the military. You can’t do it in corporate America. It should not be in the government as well,” Emanuel said. “Thank you for your service, up and out.”
Emanuel told Neera Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress, that his ban on government officials over age 75 would apply to all three branches of government.
“We just have to be honest that we have gotten to a place where you have people that are staying way past, not just their prime, their ability to really fully contribute. And that’s at all levels of government. We have standards in the private sector, in our military, and other elements. And we don’t have it in the place that I think is — that’s one piece of it.”
Emanuel’s assertion, “you can’t do it in corporate America,” is not quite true. Corporate chief executives over age 75 are rare, but they exist. Warren Buffett just stepped down as chief of Berkshire Hathaway at age 95. Roger Penske is still chairman of Penske Corporation at age 88. Allen B. Miller is still executive chairman of Universal Health Services, at age 88. Leslie Wexner was 83 when he stepped down from Victoria’s Secret. I’m not saying the guy is a role model.
The U.S. military does have mandatory retirement laws, but they are generally set by the number of years in service, not necessarily the age of the enlisted personnel.
If enacted, Emanuel’s envisioned limit would lead to sweeping changes across the leadership of the American government.
On the Supreme Court, Justice Clarence Thomas is 77 years old. Justice Samuel Alito is 75. If Emanuel became president in 2029 and managed to enact that change in his first year in office, by 2030, Sonia Sotomayor — who is currently 71 — would be pressing up against that limit, as would Chief Justice John Roberts, who turns 71 in a few days. Justices Elena Kagan (age 65), Brett Kavanaugh (age 60), Neil Gorsuch (age 58), Ketanji Brown Jackson (age 55), and Amy Coney Barrett (turning 54 later this month) are in the clear.
The Senate has 17 members who are 75 or older, and the House has 45 such members.
Interestingly, Trump’s current cabinet is comparably young. The oldest cabinet member is Health and Human Services secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who just turned 72. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum is 69.
Emanuel is 66 years old, born November 29, 1959. On Inauguration Day 2029, Emanuel will be 69 years, one month, and 22 days old. If reelected, President Emanuel would be 73 years, one months and 22 days . . . and he would pass his own limit about midway through his second term. Perhaps Emanuel plans to serve just one term, or to resign from office around Thanksgiving 2034.
I may be the only person who remembers that Rahm’s brother, physician and health-care policy adviser Ezekiel Emanuel, wrote in 2014 that he hoped to die at age 75, and that he finds the idea of living past that date to be morally problematic. Ezekiel Emanuel went on to serve on President Biden’s coronavirus task force, an appointment announced when Biden was 78 years old.
Ezekiel Emanuel is 68. Tick, tick, tick. . . .
There are some who will argue, fairly, that this proposal and the notion of amending the constitutional eligibility requirements for the presidency represent an overreaction to the experience of Joe Biden’s presidency. But it’s hard to begrudge Americans for having a newfound, intense fear of a gerontocracy.
I suspect most Americans assumed that the country would be unlikely to ever run the risk of having a senile president because they figured A) the president himself would notice his declining abilities, and put the country’s interest ahead of his own hunger to remain in power; B) the president’s spouse, family, and closest friends would notice his declining abilities, and put the country’s interest ahead of their own hunger to remain close to power; C) the president’s staff and cabinet members would notice his declining abilities, and put the country’s interest ahead of their own hunger to remain in power; D) the White House physician would never agree to cover up concerns about the president’s physical or mental health; and E) the rest of the president’s party would notice his declining abilities, and put the country’s interest ahead of their fear of upsetting the applecart and forcing him to withdraw from a reelection campaign.
In 2024, the first four completely failed and the fifth took its sweet time moving into action, only mobilizing after the commander in chief stepped onto a debate stage and looked like a wandering memory care facility resident, mumbling about “if we finally beat Medicare.”
Yes, a mandatory retirement age of 75 for top government jobs would deny us the occasional spry elder statesman. (A few years ago, at age 87, Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley was still doing 22 push-ups on stage alongside Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton.) Yes, in theory, age brings experience, which can often bring wisdom. Yes, as medical breakthroughs continue and the human lifespan increases, what once seemed like “old” doesn’t seem so old anymore.
Oh, and yes, the mainstream media are ludicrous hypocrites on this issue, contending Ronald Reagan was too old to run for reelection at age 73, and that Bob Dole was too old to be president at age 72, while largely averting their eyes from Biden’s obvious decline in his late 70s and early 80s.
But most people, at age 75, are not in a condition to be commander in chief.
During the Cuban Missile Crisis, President Kennedy and his top staff barely slept over a 13-day period. That’s an extreme example, but we know that at any given moment and with little warning, the president and top officials may well have to work — making high-stakes, life-and-death decisions — for an extended period with little time for rest. That’s an extremely difficult challenge for a young and healthy man, never mind a senior citizen. America dodged a bullet that there wasn’t a 9/11, Oklahoma City bombing, or India-Pakistan nuclear standoff in the final years of Biden’s presidency. Biden’s strange absences and terse public appearances during the Afghanistan withdrawal were bad enough.
Would America really have been hurt if, say, the late California Senator Dianne Feinstein had been forced to retire by the time her daughter was old enough to collect Social Security? If former Representative Kay Granger (R., Texas) had been forced to retire before she moved to a senior living facility, while she was still serving as a representative?
If current Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D., D.C.) had retired before a police report described her as living with the “early stages of dementia”?
We’ve seen a lot of bad behavior surrounding elderly and doddering lawmakers. The families and staffers around elderly lawmakers are apparently incapable of having those hard discussions about memory lapses, confusion, and other consequences of advanced age.
One last thought: Running for president is hard — much more difficult than most ambitious young politicians think. The past decades have seen plenty of governors, senators, and members of the House who think that they’re a big deal and widely popular across the country declare a presidential bid, only to find that the overwhelming majority of Americans have never heard of them and have little to no interest in what they have to say. You think you’re in Iowa to make history as the first woman president, and find that the person in front of you is just trying to get past you to get some ranch dressing. In 1999, then-House Budget Committee chairman John Kasich ran for president and found that most voters had no idea who he was. The Beltway bubble convinces a lot of politicians that they’re much more well-known and well-liked outside of their home state than they actually are.
Building up the name recognition to become a serious candidate for the presidency takes decades. (Time magazine first put Donald Trump on the cover in January 1989.) That’s why you don’t see a lot of top-tier presidential candidates below 50 years old.
ADDENDUM: Noah Rothman observes that Trump’s description of the deal for Greenland does not match the description from his negotiating partners, nor the text:
But the White House’s account is disputed by his negotiating partners. “We didn’t discuss that issue at all,” said [NATO Secretary General Mark] Rutte when asked about the extension of U.S. sovereignty to Greenlandic soil. Rather, he maintains that discussions were limited to mutual security initiatives in the Arctic. The Danes, too, refused to allow the president’s narrative to stand. “NATO is fully aware of the Kingdom of Denmark’s position,” a statement from the Danish prime minister read. “We can negotiate on everything political: security, investments, economy. But we cannot negotiate on our sovereignty. I have been informed that this has not been the case.” Reporters subsequently confirmed that the “future framework” retailed by the president “does not include any suggestion that Denmark would cede sovereignty of parts of Greenlandic territory to house US military bases.”
President Trump often agrees to whatever offer is on the table, then insists it is the greatest victory ever.