Who are the oldest and youngest US presidents in history as Biden drops out
US President Joe Biden this week dropped out of the race for the White House, leaving the presidential race in uncharted territory.
Mr Biden ended his bid for re-election following a disastrous debate with Donald Trump that raised doubts about his fitness for office just four months before the election.
In a letter posted on X, the 81-year-old said: "It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President.
“And while it has been my intention to seek re-election, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term."
He has declared his backing for his VP, Kamala Harris, who is 59 years old, but will be 60 by the time the election comes around in November.
Harris launched her campaign for president yesterday (Tuesday, July 23), framing the race with Republican nominee Donald Trump as “a choice between freedom and chaos”.
The Democrat went on the attack against Trump in her first campaign rally speech since entering the presidential race, as a new poll shows her leading the former president in the race for the White House.
The vice president took to the stage in the battleground state of Wisconsin on Tuesday, to Beyoncé’s Freedom, telling the cheering crowd: “We will win this election, yes we will.” She said, in her former roles as a US senator, attorney-general and courtroom prosecutor, she took on “perpetrators of all kinds”.
She told the crowd: “Predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain. So hear me when I say, I know Donald Trump’s type.”
But who are the oldest and youngest presidents to have served the US?
Who was the oldest-serving president?
Joe Biden was 78 years old when he was elected president of the USA in January 2021.
The oldest president at the end of his tenure before this was Ronald Reagan, who was 77 when he finished leading the country in January 1989.
Who was the youngest-serving president?
John F Kennedy – the 35th president of the United States – was the youngest-serving president to be elected, and also the youngest at the end of his tenure, when he died.
Also a Democrat, JFK served from 1961 until his assassination in 1963 and was inaugurated at the age of just 43.
He died aged 46 when he was assassinated as he rode in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza, in downtown Dallas, Texas.
How old would Joe Biden have been if he had stood and won?
Joe Biden previously threw his hat into the ring to stand again in 2023, saying he was entering the 2024 campaign re-election.
The 2024 United States general election is set to be held on November 5, but he has since withdrawn.
If he had stayed on and been re-elected, Mr Biden would have be 81 years old, turning 82 just weeks later, on November 20.
Under previous timescales, presidents are normally inaugurated in January the following year, meaning he would have done so at the age of 82. He would have been 86 before the end of a second term.
