"Mr. Trump, by contrast, does not appear to be suffering the effects of time in such visible ways," wrote Rebecca Davis O’Brien. "Mr. Trump often dyes his hair and appears unnaturally tan. He is heavyset and tall, and he uses his physicality to project strength in front of crowds. When he takes the stage at rallies, he basks in adulation for several minutes, dancing to an opening song, and then holds forth in speeches replete with macho rhetoric and bombast that typically last well over an hour, a display of stamina."
Meanwhile, The Times' characterization of Biden as "tall and thin" but "appears stiff," and it says he fell twice in three years, pointed out Victoria Brownworth.
There were several individuals furious over the description, particularly the idea that Trump is somehow "unnaturally tan" when the reality is he wears a lot of makeup.
Actor and singer Susan Murphy rewrote the description for the Times: “Mr. Trump has a yellow cotton candy-like combover and wears excessive orange makeup. He is overweight for his shrinking height - Biden is taller and fitter - and has trouble walking distances, descending stairs, and standing upright.”
Others pointed out Trump's inability to walk down steps or even ramps while he was president. In one case, Trump stumbled on the stairs, forcing him to grab onto former Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Upon a visit from former Prime Minister Theresa May, Trump walked down a small ramp at the White House toward a podium where the two would be speaking. He grabbed onto her as he shuffled his feet, drawing international attention.
A very slow Trump scooted his way down a ramp at West Point after giving an outdoor commencement speech in June 2020. Trump claimed that the ramp was "slippery," but there had been no rain.
“The ramp that I descended after my West Point Commencement speech was very long & steep, had no handrail and, most importantly, was very slippery," Trump tweeted at the time. "The last thing I was going to do is ‘fall’ for the Fake News to have fun with. Final ten feet I ran down to level ground. Momentum!”
Another individual posted the video of Trump not knowing where his car was after walking off of Air Force One when it was right in front of him with the door open.
Esquire columnist Charlie Pierce asked if an editor was "drump" when they allowed it to be published.
Others related it to propaganda coming out of North Korea.
Then there were those who remembered Trump struggling to drink a glass of water with one hand.
"Biden doing the special counsel interview & getting crushed for it is the latest in a long line of Trump opponents getting punished for following norms he would never abide to. Trump skipped Mueller after-all, imagine the lies and memory lapses had that interview happened. Sigh," lamented ex-Republican Tim Miller.
"The top four stories on The New York Times website are negative stories about Biden’s health and age and memory. Even the one story that mentions Trump takes a shot at Biden. The Times, like much of our media, has learned nothing from the media debacle of 2016, it seems," pointed out former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan.
"The Nation's" editor and publisher, Katrina vanden Heuvel, had a different take: "'More in memory wars/'There is another way to look at this. We have seen a large number of people who used to work for Trump say he’s unfit (to say the least). And while I might have missed something (don't watch Fox), I haven’t seen a single former Biden aide come forward with such a claim.”
