Discovered the benefits of an occasional nap: Donald Trump.Image: keystone
The American president rejects rumors that he is suffering from old age problems. But these persist. Has Donald Trump lost his ability to stage himself?
Dec 4, 2025, 5:54 amDec 4, 2025, 5:54 am
Renzo Ruf, Washington / ch media
The American president has found a new way to avoid annoying questions about his advanced age. Two large plasters covered the noticeable skin discoloration on his right hand on Tuesday, when Donald Trump gathered his cabinet at the White House for an extra-long meeting.
Trump’s hand at an event on November 30th.Image: keystone
When the 79-year-old scratched his neck, the quick wound dressings were clearly visible for a short time – even though Trump had tried to hide the bruises from the curious media representatives in recent weeks, sometimes with the help of makeup.
The president also couldn’t hide the fact that he was tired on Tuesday. During the marathon meeting – in which Cabinet members praised their boss with North Korean ferocity – Trump lost the battle against his heavy eyelids several times. The president seemed to nod off as the television cameras focused on Secretary of State Marco Rubio, 25 years his junior, sitting right next to him.
Of course there are other attempts to explain this moment. Maybe Trump needed to collect himself at the end of a long meeting. Or he was almost overwhelmed by the praises of his ministers, to whom he had listened “attentively,” as a servile spokesman for the president put it.
But that is the less likely option. Firstly, the president, who was born in 1946, knows exactly how the medium of television works – whoever is in the spotlight has to present themselves.
And secondly, a lack of perseverance does not fit with the image of the eternal stand-up man who has been able to cope with all setbacks for decades and always keeps going. This is how Trump became famous. And so he fought his way into the White House twice, despite the numerous obstacles (One assassination attempt! Two divorces! Six bankruptcy declarations! Many dirty statements!).
Trump travels less in his 2nd term
Trump himself says he is “brighter” or “smarter” today than he was 25 years ago. That’s wishful thinking. There is no public evidence that the president is in poor health or even suffers from a chronic illness. But even Donald Trump can’t stop the natural aging process – as pictures in which he doesn’t wear makeup show.
Trump doesn’t cut the best figure at a lunch at his golf club.Image: x
And because he refuses to talk about his health like a reasonable person, he encourages the speculation with a certain regularity. For several weeks, Trump claimed that he didn’t know why his medical examiner recently put him in an MRI machine. (It was supposedly a routine exam, the doctor announced somewhat belatedly.)
But even if Trump is healthy, it is an open secret in Washington that the president is less dynamic in his second term than he was eight years ago, at the beginning of his first term.
The “New York Times” recently backed this claim with figures: in 2017, Trump attended almost 1,700 official events in the first ten months of his term in office. This year the number of these events has fallen by 39 percent. Since the inauguration on January 20, 2025, Trump has also traveled much less across the country and has almost completely refrained from making campaign appearances in front of supporters. To do this, he took more trips abroad, which are more time-consuming.
Trump is still active online
The president compensates for these adjustments to his daily routine with stationary activism. During his appearances in the White House, he speaks much longer than he used to; The meetings of his cabinet, at which no decisions are made, now last up to 3 hours. Trump is also more active on his Internet service Truth Social. On Tuesday night, the American president published around 160 statements in less than five hours.
With this activism, Trump keeps the audience happy, or at least satisfies the needs of his fans. However, this cannot solve the actual problem that the president is confronted with. The American people are dissatisfied with the economic situation and feel that the president is not paying enough attention to this issue.
That bodes poorly for the Republican Party, which aims to win next year’s national general election. Most recently, on Tuesday, a friend of Trump’s party won a by-election for the House of Representatives with a lead of only 9 percentage points – even though Trump had distanced his opponent Kamala Harris by 22 points in the conservative district in the state of Tennessee a year ago.
In the coming election campaign, his party is dependent on Trump. This makes it all the more important to answer the question: Does the president still have enough energy? (aargauerzeitung.ch)