“Donald hates his birthdays,” Ivana Trump once said of her former husband.
He seemed to hate this one, especially on Friday. He looked genuinely upset earlier this week when his supporters sang “Happy Birthday” to him at a rally in Las Vegas. “You know,” he told them, “there’s a certain point at which you don’t want to hear “Happy Birthday.” You just want to pretend this day doesn’t exist.
Without a doubt. Now 78, he is trying to convince the country to give him four more years in office, at the end of which he will become the oldest president in American history – a role held by the current occupant of the Oval, aged 81. Desk.
During the election campaign, both men try to downplay their ages while making the other appear as grumpy and grumpy as possible.
The Trump team spent the week releasing selectively edited videos of Mr. Biden walking around Europe, looking like Corrado Soprano lost in Newark. “We have a president who has no idea what’s going on,” Mr. Trump said during a birthday celebration with supporters in Palm Beach, Florida, on Friday evening.
The Biden campaign responded with an email on Mr. Trump’s birthday, reminding voters that he fell asleep during his own trial, a case that resulted in felony convictions. “He is unhinged, unable to focus and diminishing before our eyes,” Biden campaign spokesman James Singer said of the former president.
Mr. Trump had fun on his birthdays. “Donald was the kid who threw the cake at birthday parties,” his younger brother Robert said. said once journalist Marie Brenner. After becoming a mogul, Mr. Trump hosted swingers parties at his casinos in Atlantic City, New Jersey, such as the one at Trump’s Castle in 1988, for his 42nd birthday, where he showed videos of Liza Minnelli and Billy Crystal wishing him a happy birthday. birthday. (President Ronald Reagan sent a telegram.)
Two years later, Mr. Trump’s birthday party was hosted by Robin Leach of the TV show “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.” Dolly Parton and Elton John sent videos, Andrew Dice Clay performed and a George HW Bush impersonator said Mr Trump should one day be president. At Mr. Trump’s 50th birthday celebration at Trump Tower in New York, Eartha Kitt sang for him, and there was an ice sculpture of Marla Maples, then his wife, as a mermaid.
There were no mermaids or Catwomen at his 78th birthday. It was held at the Palm Beach County Convention Center near the airport by a group of supporters who call themselves Club 47 USA, a hopeful reference to Trump’s aspiration to become the 47th president. General admission is $25.
“There’s nowhere else I’d rather be,” Mr. Trump told hundreds of his supporters who filled the convention center, some jostling and cursing to get closer to the stage, where there was a layered cake. Images of Mr Trump playing golf and sitting behind the resolute desk were painted on the icing. (The cake also wore a red MAGA hat.)
The last time he spoke to this group, in October, he talked about the day he ordered a drone strike against Iran’s top security and intelligence commander, Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani.
‘Nobody has heard this story before,’ Mr Trump told them. “But I’d like to tell Club 47, because you’ve been so loyal.” He also spoke at the event about his disappointment in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – even though it was only four days after the Hamas-led attack on the country on October 7. “I will never forget that Bibi Netanyahu let us down,” Mr. Trump said at the time.
His only living sister, Elizabeth Trump, was at the birthday party Friday. “Where is Elizabeth?” he asked from the stage. “Right there. My lovely sister. She’s a big sister. She’s good.”
There was also Marco Rubio, a vice presidential candidate who had taken a subtle approach to auditioning for the job. “I’ll be honest with you,” Mr. Rubio said from the stage. “Sometimes I wonder: why is this guy doing this? He had a great life. He didn’t need to get into politics. There’s only one reason why someone someone like him would go into politics, with all these worries, with all these things he has to put up with. There is only one reason: because he loves our country and he wants to save it from the. people who want it.
Kellyanne Conway was also there, as was a 101-year-old World War II veteran who, Mr. Trump said, looked “much better than Biden.”
The day before, Mr. Trump had been celebrated by a group that has not always been as loyal as Club 47: Republican lawmakers. At a meeting at the Capitol, House Republicans serenaded him and Republican senators presented a vanilla iced cake with large “45” and “47” candles stuck on it.
But there’s something about being 78 that makes a man think about his mortality. At the rally in Las Vegas, Mr. Trump, in a rare moment of introspection, spoke of his old age.
“My father lived a long time, my mother lived a long time, and they were happy and they were great,” he said, looking a little speechless. “So maybe we’ll live a long time.” I hope so.”
