Fewer voters believe Donald Trump is in good health, and more think the 78-year-old Republican is too old to run for office now that President Joe Biden is no longer in the 2024 race, according to a new poll.
A Morning Consult survey of around 2,200 registered voters compared results from when Biden was still in the race to the latest polling when Vice President Kamala Harris was the presumptive 2024 Democratic nominee.
The results show that now Trump is facing off against the 59-year-old Harris, fewer voters believe Trump is in “good health,” falling 6 points from 58 percent to 52.
Since Biden dropped out of the race, more than half (51 percent) now say that Trump is too old—up from 44 percent—and the number of people believing the former president is mentally fit has fallen 5 points from 53 percent to 48.
The poll results are the latest sign that Trump will now face the same scrutiny about his age and cognitive ability that plagued Biden before he pulled out of the race. Trump, 78, is now the oldest presidential nominee in U.S. history and could overtake Biden as the oldest-ever sitting U.S. president during his second term if he wins November’s election.
Even before his stumbling performance at the June 27 CNN debate, Biden, 81, had faced concerns that he was too old to seek a second term in office. These fears were heightened after every public speaking gaffe and error the president made over the years.
Despite only being three years younger than Biden and also prone to making gaffes, Trump had not previously faced the same level of public concern or that he was too old or mentally unfit to run for office again as president while running against him.
“Not surprisingly, Harris’ replacement of Biden has now erased the Democratic Party’s age problem with the American electorate. That burden has now shifted to Trump,” Eli Yokley, Morning Consult’s U.S. politics analyst, wrote in his analysis of the results.
Newsweek reached out to Trump’s office via email for comment.
Elsewhere, the Morning Consult poll also shows that Harris is continuing to ride a wave of momentum for her White House battle against Trump.
Harris leads Trump by 4 points (48 percent to 44) in the latest survey, the largest advantage for a Democratic presidential candidate over Trump in nearly a year.
Harris is also beating Trump among key demographics, including independents (42 percent to 37) and voters aged 18 to 34 years old (49 percent to 40).
The latest full Morning Consult survey was conducted August 2-4 among a sample of 11,265 registered voters. The results have a margin of error of plus or minus 1 percentage point.