Presidential age

As a postscript to this item run yesterday;

Lex Anteinternet: The death of Robert Trump, . . .: President Trump's younger brother, at age 71 should serve as a reminder to us that we, as a country, really continue to gamble with the ...

. . . the oldest man ever to take office as President for his initial term is. . . Donald Trump. 

He was 70 years old when he first took office.  Older than any other U.S. President at that time.

But just barely. Ronald Reagan was almost 70 when he took office.  Indeed, he's the only septuagenarian to have been sworn into office for his initial term.

In fact, only one other President has been in his 70s and served at all, that being Ronald Reagan, who spent most of his 70s in the Oval Office.

Presidents achieving the status of being sworn in, for their first terms, in their 60s were:

William Henry Harrison at age 68, who died just a month after taking office.  Had he lived his full term, rather than a month, he was have been the only other President other than Reagan and Trump to be in their 70s and in office.

James Buchanan, at age 65.

George H. W. Bush, at age 64

Zachary Taylor at age 64

Dwight Eisenhower, recently retired from the U.S. Army, at age 62.

Andrew Jackson at age 61.

John Adams at age 61

Gerald Ford at age 61

Henry Truman at age 60.

In contrast, more men in their 40s have taken office, although only barely. They are:

Theodore Roosevelt, age 42.

John F. Kennedy, age 43.

Bill Clinton, age 46.

Ulysses S. Grant, age  46.

Barack Obama, age 47.

Grover Cleveland, age 47.

Franklin Pierce, age 48.

James A. Garfield, age 49

James K. Polk, age 49.

The oldest a President has ever been, and still in office, was Ronald Reagan, who left the office at age 77.  That would mean that Biden, should he win, will be older than the highest age obtained by a sitting President at the time of taking office, should he do so.  And in any event, whomever wins this go around, should he serve an entire term, will surpass Reagan's record.

Is that an admirable thing?  Eamon de Valera was 90 when he left office as the President of Ireland, assuming that role at age 75.  But the President of Ireland is the head of state, and not the country's active leader.  In contrast, Ronald Reagan died at age 93, and some have claimed that he was exhibiting the signs of the Alzheimer's he'd ultimately develop by the time he left office.  Surely a President with that condition would be problematic.