It's one of his articles that sent Donald Trump into a rage. Last week, the New York Times published a piece titled "Shorter days, signs of fatigue: Trump confronted by the realities of aging while in power". In the wake of that, the authors of the article were blasted by the American president. "This cheap piece of trash is really a ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE. Katie Rogers (...) is a second-rate journalist who is ugly outwardly as well as inwardly," he responded on his Truth Social.
The oldest elected president
If Donald Trump is so virulent, it's because he has made vitality and energy a hallmark since entering politics. This translates into ubiquity and a permanent presence in the media space. He is seen every week chaining interviews, press conferences, speeches, meetings with leaders and business chiefs, and messages at all hours on social networks.
Yet, as the New York Times article notes, Trump's public appearances are noticeably down from his first term (-39%), on average shorter and starting later in the day. There is also the sequence in early November where he seemed to nap in the Oval Office, and the famous hand tremor, which the White House still attributes to "too much aspirin and handshakes."
History shows that it is always hard to know the real health status of sitting presidents, and official health bulletins cannot be fully trusted.
What is certain today is that Donald Trump is the oldest elected president in US history. And even though he still shows a lot of energy (for example, he has made more international trips than in the same period eight years ago), he will turn 80 next year, and that is starting to show.
The problem for him is that he has played a lot on opposing Joe Biden, who he nicknamed "Sleepy Joe," whose appearances were very limited, and whose missteps were endlessly mocked by Republicans. However, today, it is he himself who begins to face the same questions about his health.
Disconnection with the base?
Age advances and he has less energy to deploy than eight years ago. It is inevitable. But perhaps it is not the most troubling thing - at least for now.
Because what we are beginning to see is a form of rift with the base, symbolized by the explosive resignation of Marjorie Taylor Greene, representative from Georgia, on November 21. She is nevertheless a MAGA figure.
She opposed Donald Trump on the Epstein affair, voting for the publication of the so-called "Epstein files" (the documents related to that case), against the president's wishes.
While under pressure, Donald Trump ultimately cracked (encouraging Republicans to vote), the rupture between both is complete. But beyond a Congressional member, Donald Trump is mainly at odds with his base.
Indeed, during the 2024 campaign, he promised to publish the "Epstein files" and expose the complicities of elites and the "deep state." Because in the MAGA world, there remains the idea of a network of abuse covering the powerful, with the state hiding the truth, and the conviction that Trump is the one who "drains the swamp." However, the fact that he drags his feet once in power is a form of betrayal for the most anti-system faction of his base.
And while that affair caused the rupture between Greene and Trump, it isn't the only source of dissent with the MAGA sphere.
The other accusation against him is that he spends a lot of time on international issues, notably Ukraine and the Middle East. In other words, the champion of "America First" is not focusing enough on Americans' problems.
Finally, the populist rhetoric that Donald Trump has always used and that pleases his base is not very compatible with the proximity he shows to tech and Wall Street executives. A point Marjorie Taylor Greene also raised at the time of her resignation: "If I am sidelined by MAGA Inc. and replaced by the neoconservatives, Big Pharma, Big Tech, the military-industrial complex, foreign leaders and the class of major donors who don't even understand True Americans, then many ordinary Americans will also have been sidelined and replaced."
Trump 2028?
There are thus divisions within the Republican camp - but that's nothing new. What has changed, and what the clash with Marjorie Taylor Greene shows, is that people now dare to oppose the leader.
Why? Because Donald Trump is a president in his second term. In theory, he cannot run again. Everyone is already preparing for what comes next. And the more time passes, the more he risks losing influence over Republican officeholders.
Unless he runs for a third term. While that would typically be prohibited by the 22nd Amendment of the Constitution, it at least leaves a doubt about this possibility.
For his former adviser, Steve Bannon, it is even more than a possibility: "He will obtain a third term... Trump will be president in 2028. People would do well to get used to it," he said in an interview with The Economist in late October. But if Steve Bannon speaks of "a plan" that will be "revealed at the right moment," it is not clear how this would be possible.
The idea of being JD Vance's vice president also falls under the 22nd Amendment. As for amending the Constitution, that seems impossible. It would require a two-thirds majority in Congress, and at least three-quarters of the states (38 of 50) to ratify the new text.
Donald Trump continues to oscillate hot and cold. This weekend, he shared on Truth Social an AI-generated image of himself holding a Trump 2028 sign.
However, all this is just a way for him to stay in the game, delay the deadline, and not become a "lame duck" too quickly, which is a fate common to many American presidents in their second term.
Even if he were at the starting line, a reelection is far from assured: he is currently at his lowest level in the polls.
