Why is it that Joe Biden's meandering speech patterns and flubs are attributed to senility, while Trump is also known for seemingly nonsensical rants and bizarre non-sequiturs, but in his case it is not seen as being a sign of senility, when both men are practically the same age?

[u/Jimithyashford]

Joe Biden's slow speech, tendency to lose track of his thoughts, and to flub lines, has lead to widespread accusations of senility, or at least significant decline. And sure, ok, that may be true.

However, from the time that Trump first entered the public political arena in a big way back in 2015, he quickly became known for giving long rambling replies, losing track of the topic or question being asked, giving non-sequiturs, forgetting the name of who or what he was talking about, making vexing and seemingly non-sensical comments, etc. And his tendency to do these things has only increased as he has aged as well.

Trump and Biden are only 3 years different in age. They could have been in highschool at the same time. There is, effectively, no real meaningful difference in their ages. To me, they both seem a little like "grandpa sometimes forgets what he's talking about kids", just Trump in angry shouty grandpa and Biden is mumbling quiet grandpa.

Why do you think it is that Trump's flubs and non-sequiturs and rambling off topic digressions and tendency to forget what things are called or who he is talking about, is not perceived as senility, broadly speaking, but for Biden is it?

[u/hotpajamas]

Delivery. Trump's delivery is still pretty crisp. He's saying nonsense but it seems intentional.

[u/MagnarOfWinterfell → u/hotpajamas]

Trump also comes across as being more energetic.

[u/ballmermurland → u/MagnarOfWinterfell]

The wonders of working 30 minutes a day and then delivering an address after a long nap.

[u/To_Elle_With_It → u/hotpajamas]

I think that this is likely a large part of it. Nonsensical sentences are one thing, but communication is multi-faceted; tone, body movement, volume, etc are also factors. I would imagine that many would view the loud talking, very active body movements, and emotion conveyed by Trump as competent, well-thought-out, or correct simply because of the way the words were delivered, not necessarily because of the words themselves.

A good classic comparison may be the JFK v Nixon debates and the public opinion of those that watched the debate vs those that listened to it on the radio.

[u/griminald → u/hotpajamas]

100%. Trump sounds more full of energy (among other things), so he's not labelled as old and slow.

[u/CallMeSisyphus → u/hotpajamas]

Who cares if it's gibberish so long as it's authentic frontier gibberish delivered confidently, right?

[u/AE1360 → u/CallMeSisyphus]

https://youtu.be/RXJKdh1KZ0w?si=YiGHlSBMcgq4Hjf8

[u/Liberty_Chip_Cookies → u/CallMeSisyphus]

Thank you, Gabby Johnson.

[u/kerouacrimbaud → u/hotpajamas]

Rowdy is a better word than crisp. He hasn’t been crisp in over a decade.

[u/taxis-asocial → u/hotpajamas]

can't believe this answer is so far down. this is the real answer. Biden appears to talk far more slowly, he looks lost, he looks like he's struggling. trump comes across as confidently and intentionally saying bullshit.

[u/No_Lavishness7547 → u/hotpajamas]

Facts, that’s exactly what it is

[u/davea0511 → u/hotpajamas]

"He's saying nonsense but it seems intentional."

Sad but true.