From April 25, when President Joe Biden officially announced his reelection bid, through September 30, the top five U.S. newspapers by circulation — the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post — published a total of 378 articles that mentioned either Biden’s or former President Donald Trump’s age anywhere within the article. Of those, 88% mentioned Biden’s age while only 42% mentioned Trump’s. If the papers believe that Biden’s age is so newsworthy, then they should treat the nearly as advanced age of Trump equally.

Out of all articles that mentioned either Biden's or Trump's age, each of the five papers mentioned Biden’s age nearly or more than twice as often as they mentioned Trump’s. The Los Angeles Times was most likely to mention Biden’s age, in 93% of its articles while The Wall Street Journal was least likely to mention Trump’s age, in just 39% of its articles.

Out of the 332 articles that mentioned Biden's age, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times were least likely to also mention Trump’s, with 28% and 29%, respectively. The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, and USA Today mentioned Trump’s age in articles that also mentioned Biden’s age 43%, 39%, and 33% of the time, respectively.

Of the 158 articles that mentioned Trump’s age, the papers also mentioned Biden’s age in a whopping 71% of them. The Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post were most likely to do so, with 85% and 82%, respectively, of articles that mentioned Trump’s age also mentioning Biden’s. USA Today mentioned Biden’s age in articles that mentioned Trump’s 70% of the time while The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal each did so 61% of the time.

Each month since the president’s reelection announcement, all five papers together mentioned Biden’s age far more often than Trump’s — ranging from a low of a 37-point difference in May to a high of a 66-point different in July — except for August, when prosecutors in Washington, D.C., and Georgia indicted Trump for attempting to circumvent the 2020 presidential election. That month, mentions of Biden’s age outpaced Trump’s by only 9 points. By September, that difference had jumped back up to 57 points.

In total, The New York Times mentioned Biden’s age the most out of any paper, in 98 of its articles. The Times mentioned Trump’s age in just 46 of its articles. USA Today mentioned the president’s and former president’s age the least, in 21 and 10 of its articles, respectively.

Previously, Media Matters found that cable news mentioned Biden’s age four times as often as Trump’s in a four-day period beginning with the release of a recent Washington Post-ABC News poll that included questions about both candidates’ age and health.

Media Matters searched print articles in the Factiva and Nexis databases from the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post for either of the terms “Biden,” “Trump,” or “president” within the same article as any of the terms “age,” “77,” “78,” “80,” “82,” “86,” “70s,” or “80s” or any variations of any of the terms “old,” “elder,” “seventy,” or “eighty” from April 25, 2023, the date the Biden campaign announced his reelection bid, through September 30, 2023.

We included articles, which we defined as instances when either or both Biden’s or Trump’s age was mentioned anywhere in the text.

Percentages do not add up to 100% because a single article could mention both Biden’s or Trump’s age simultaneously.