“Donald hates his birthdays,” Ivana Trump as soon as mentioned of her former husband.
He appeared to hate this one, on Friday, particularly. He appeared genuinely upset earlier this week when his supporters sang an early “Glad Birthday” to him at a rally in Las Vegas. “,” he informed them, “there’s a sure level at which you don’t wish to hear ‘Glad Birthday.’ You simply wish to fake the day doesn’t exist.”
Little doubt. Now 78, he’s attempting to persuade the nation to present him one other 4 years in workplace, on the finish of which he could be the oldest president in American historical past — a mantle held by the present, 81-year-old occupant of the Oval Workplace.
On the marketing campaign path, each males attempt to downplay their age whereas making the opposite seem as creaky and cranky as doable.
The Trump crew spent the week blasting out selectively edited movies of Mr. Biden toddling round Europe, wanting like Corrado Soprano misplaced in Newark. “We now have a president who has no clue what the hell is occurring,” Mr. Trump mentioned at a birthday celebration with supporters in Palm Seashore, Fla., on Friday night.
The Biden marketing campaign hit again with an e mail on Mr. Trump’s birthday, reminding voters that he had fallen asleep at his personal trial, a case that resulted in felony convictions. “He’s unhinged, unable to focus and diminishing earlier than our very eyes,” James Singer, a Biden marketing campaign spokesman, mentioned of the previous president.
Mr. Trump used to have enjoyable on his birthdays. “Donald was the kid who would throw the cake on the birthday events,” his youthful brother Robert as soon as informed the journalist Marie Brenner. After he grew to become a mogul, Mr. Trump would throw swinging events at his casinos in Atlantic Metropolis, N.J., just like the one at Trump’s Citadel in 1988, for his forty second birthday, when he performed movies of Liza Minnelli and Billy Crystal wishing him a cheerful birthday. (President Ronald Reagan despatched a telegram.)
Two years later, Mr. Trump’s party was hosted by Robin Leach, from the TV present “Existence of the Wealthy and Well-known.” Dolly Parton and Elton John despatched movies, Andrew Cube Clay carried out, and a George H.W. Bush imitator declared that Mr. Trump ought to in the future be president. At Mr. Trump’s fiftieth birthday celebration, in Trump Tower in New York, Eartha Kitt sang to him, and there was an ice sculpture of Marla Maples, then his spouse, in mermaid kind.
There weren’t any mermaids or Catwomen at his 78th. It was held on the Palm Seashore County Conference Heart close to the airport by a bunch of supporters who name themselves Membership 47 USA, a hopeful reference to Trump’s aspiration to grow to be the forty seventh president. Common admission value $25.
“There’s nowhere else I’d somewhat be,” Mr. Trump mentioned to a whole lot of his supporters who stuffed the conference middle, some pushing and cursing at each other to get a spot nearer the stage, the place a tiered cake sat. Photos of Mr. Trump taking part in golf and sitting behind the resolute desk have been painted into the icing. (The cake additionally wore a pink MAGA hat.)
The final time he addressed this group, in October, he opened up in regards to the day that he ordered a drone strike on Iran’s high safety and intelligence commander, Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani.
“No person’s heard this story earlier than,” Mr. Trump informed them. “However I’d like to inform it to Membership 47, since you’ve been so loyal.” He additionally talked at that occasion about his disappointment with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel — although it was solely 4 days after the Hamas-led Oct. 7 assault on the nation. “I’ll always remember that Bibi Netanyahu allow us to down,” Mr. Trump mentioned then.
His solely dwelling sibling, Elizabeth Trump, had turned up for the birthday occasion Friday. “The place’s Elizabeth?” he requested from the stage. “Proper there. My stunning sister. She’s an awesome sister. Nice one.”
Additionally, there was Marco Rubio, a vice-presidential contender who had been taking a delicate method to auditioning for the job. “I’m going to be sincere with you,” Mr. Rubio mentioned from the stage. “Typically, I feel, Why is that this man doing this? He had an awesome life. He didn’t must be in politics. There’s just one motive why somebody like him could be in politics, with all of those hassles, with all of this stuff he has to place up with. There’s just one motive — as a result of he loves our nation and he needs to put it aside from folks that wish to destroy it.”
Kellyanne Conway was there, too, in addition to a 101-year-old World Warfare II veteran who, Mr. Trump declared, appeared “a hell of lots higher than Biden.”
A day earlier, Mr. Trump had been celebrated by a bunch that has not all the time been as loyal as Membership 47: Republican lawmakers. At a gathering on Capitol Hill, Home Republicans serenaded him, and G.O.P. senators offered a vanilla-frosted cake with massive “45” and “47” candles caught into it.
However there’s something about turning 78 that makes a person ponder his mortality. On the rally in Las Vegas, Mr. Trump had, in a uncommon second of introspection, riffed about his previous age.
“My father lived a very long time, my mom lived a very long time, they usually have been comfortable, they usually have been nice,” he mentioned, sounding a bit muted. “So possibly we’re going to dwell a very long time. I hope so.”
