Last year, I posted this on my feed on Facebook; since that’s friends-only, I thought I’d repost it here on the anniversary of this rather regrettable milestone.
As most folks know, Trump is the oldest President at his inauguration, beating out Reagan by about 8 months (Reagan was not quite 70, Trump almost 71).
What others may not have realized is he’s also an exceptional President in other ways:
* He’s the first time a third President has been born in the same year (with Clinton and Bush Jr, all three born in 1946)
* He’s the oldest jump from his predecessor both at age at his inauguration, but also in age inauguration-to-inauguration.
More presidential age trivia
There are three decades with no Presidents born in them, the 1810s, the 1930s, or (as yet) the 1950s — the last might still get one, although hopefully we’ll jump straight to a Gen Xer post-Trump.
There are 4 decades with only 1 President:
1840s: McKinley
1860s: Harding
1890s: Eisenhower
1900s: LBJ
Of Presidents born in the 1920s and 1940s, only 1 year is represented:
1924 – GHW Bush and Jimmy Carter
1946 – Clinton, GW Bush and Trump
Longest absolute gap between presidential birthdays:
13y 2mo (1809-1822, Lincoln -> Grant)
17y 10 mo (1890-1908: Eisenhower -> LBJ)
21y 8-9mo (1924-1946: Carter -> GWB / Trump)
([edit]Above as ordered by birthday, not by date of Presidency)
Gaps in overall age, relative to predecessor
Older
Wilson 9 mo
Taft 1y 1m
Arthur 2y 1 mo
B Harrison 3y 5mo
LBJ 8y 9mo
WH Harrison 9y 9m
Taylor 10y 11m
Buchanan 12y 7mo
Reagan 13y 8mo
Trump 15y 2mo
Younger
GWB 1mo 13day
FDR 7y mo
GHWB 13y 5mo
Grant 14y 1mo
Ven Buren 14y 9mo
Obama 15y 1mo
Fillmore 15y 1m
T Roosevelt 15y 9mo
Tyler 17y ~1mo
Lincoln 17y ~11 mo
Clinton 22y 2mo
Kennedy 26y 7 mo
By age at inauguration compared to Predecessor
Younger
Obama 7y 1mo
Van Buren 7y 8mo
Grant 9y 5mo
Roosevelt 11y 2mo
Lincoln 13y 9mo
Fillmore 14y 3mo
Tyler 17y
Clinton 18y 2mo
JFK 18y 8mo
Older
Wilson ~4y
Adams 4y 2mo
Ford 5y
Hayes 7y 5mo
GWB 8y 1mo
Truman 9y 10mo (But younger than FDR overall; those 3+ terms mess with the pattern )
B Harrison 7y 5 mo
Taft 8 years 7 mo
LBJ 11y 7mo
WH Harrison 13y 10mo
Taylor 14y 9mo
Buchanan 17y 7mo
Reagan 17y 7mo
Trump 23y 2mo
(edit from original: note that the rounding to the month is not even remotely consistent, as I just looked at the month and year of birth and not the day of month.)
[Edited in 2022 to remove a stray underlining tag. At some point I should update this to add Biden.]