Political Mortality: Rahm Emanuel Says There Should Be a Mandatory 75-Year-Old Retirement Age for Key Federal Roles
Political (and presidential) survivorship to consider
Happy President’s Day Weekend! Let’s check out some political mortality…
21 Jan 2026, NYT: Rahm Emanuel Calls for Age Limit of 75 for President, Congress and Judges
Rahm Emanuel, a prominent Democrat who has signaled his desire to run for president in 2028, on Wednesday called for a mandatory retirement age of 75 for the president, cabinet officials, members of Congress and federal judges.
Mr. Emanuel, a former Chicago mayor and ambassador to Japan, urged the age cap during remarks that were largely focused on education policy at the Center for American Progress, a Democratic think tank in Washington.
‘’Across all three branches of government, 75 years -- you’re out,’‘ Mr. Emanuel said as he laid out a proposal for sweeping ethics changes. ‘’Clean it up, all of Washington, and when you’re 75, you can’t do that in the military, you can’t do it in corporate America, you should not be in government at all. Thank you for your service, up and out.’‘
Mr. Emanuel is rarely seen as part of the top tier of Democrats jockeying to run for the party’s next presidential nomination. But he is one of the most active in trying to guide the party’s direction as it tries to win back power and considers its future.
Mr. Emanuel’s call for an age cap follows the elections of the two oldest presidents in American history. President Trump, 79, has in recent months appeared to fall asleep during Oval Office meetings. His predecessor, former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., was forced to abandon his 2024 re-election campaign at age 81, after Democratic leaders finally acquiesced to the reality that most of America thought he was too old to run again.
Mr. Emanuel is 66, older than many of the Democrats and Republicans who are seen as the next generation of American political leaders. If he were elected president in 2028, his age limit of 75 would in theory prohibit him from serving for a second term.
‘’You can count,’‘ Mr. Emanuel wrote in a text message when asked if the age cap would apply to him, going on to detail his past efforts to enact stricter ethics rules.
This is just an excerpt, but the article doesn’t mention at all that this would require a Constitutional amendment.
So good luck with that.
But, interestingly, Rahm picked 75 in particular, because that age tickled something in my brain… something related to his brother Zeke Emanuel, who wrote something notorious for The Atlantic in 2014, titled: “Why I Hope to Die at 75”
If you’re not familiar with the Emanuel brothers, let me give you a quick rundown:
Zeke Emanuel: 68 years old, oncologist and “bioethicist”. Yes, I mean the scare quotes. More on him in a moment.
Rahm Emanuel: 66 years old, Democratic politician, had been in the Clinton, Obama, and Biden administrations. Had a stint as mayor of Chicago, the fool.
Ari Emanuel: 64 years old, celeb talent agent, best-known as the inspiration for the character Ari Gold on the show Entourage.
Blast from the Past: Dr. Death and Age 75
Let us go back to 2014, and let’s see what age 75, specifically, meant to Dr. Zeke Emanuel. At the time he wrote the article, he was 56 or 57.
But his parents….
October 2014, The Atlantic: Why I Hope to Die at 75
Seventy-five.
That’s how long I want to live: 75 years.
This preference drives my daughters crazy. It drives my brothers crazy. My loving friends think I am crazy. They think that I can’t mean what I say; that I haven’t thought clearly about this, because there is so much in the world to see and do. To convince me of my errors, they enumerate the myriad people I know who are over 75 and doing quite well. They are certain that as I get closer to 75, I will push the desired age back to 80, then 85, maybe even 90.
I am sure of my position. Doubtless, death is a loss. It deprives us of experiences and milestones, of time spent with our spouse and children. In short, it deprives us of all the things we value.
But here is a simple truth that many of us seem to resist: living too long is also a loss. It renders many of us, if not disabled, then faltering and declining, a state that may not be worse than death but is nonetheless deprived. It robs us of our creativity and ability to contribute to work, society, the world. It transforms how people experience us, relate to us, and, most important, remember us. We are no longer remembered as vibrant and engaged but as feeble, ineffectual, even pathetic.
I added that emphasis on the last line.
I want you to understand who wrote this intro: a doctor. A “bioethicist”.
He is/was an oncologist. I’m not sure how many cancer patients he has actually worked with, but I know what it looks like, especially for those who have advanced cancer. I saw the people lined up in wheelchairs in the hallway of Memorial Sloan Kettering in Manhattan, waiting for fluid to be drained from around their lungs.
It’s not pleasant.
All that said, a doctor who thinks it’s okay to off the “feeble”, because non-vibrant life is apparently not worth living. Hmmm.
While obviously I would want a doctor who is attempting the best possible health outcomes for me as a patient… that the doctor evidently has an attitude that a “feeble” life is so pathetic as one should just die already… hmmm. Yeah, I would not want to go to that person as my oncologist. Especially if I had advanced cancer.
Let me be fair — the article wasn’t about rolling over and dying at age 75 itself. It was about not pursuing additional health treatment at that age. But his attitude was way out of date, even in 2014, and perhaps colored by his experience as an oncologist.
People have been living longer and with better health, and no, it’s not because of any “extraordinary” treatments per se.
That said, this is about political mortality and morbidity, but I wanted to point out Dr. Zeke thought 75 was the age at which decrepitude crept in. Oh, feebleness!
In November 2020, Dr. Zeke signed on to Biden’s transition team COVID-19 advisory board.
Biden turned 78 on November 20, 2020.
WSJ: More on the Oldsters in Politics — Push Out Boomers (and Pre-Boomers)
8 Feb 2026, WSJ: Elderly Lawmakers Won’t Step Aside, Prompting New Debate Over Age Limits
An aging political class in Washington is prompting fresh calls for forcing older officeholders to step aside in favor of younger faces.
Working well past retirement age is an area of rare bipartisan agreement in Washington. President Trump will turn 80 this year, and Joe Biden left office at age 82, both breaking Ronald Reagan-era records for age in office. In Congress, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) is 92 years old, while Rep. Maxine Waters (D., Calif.) is 87. It isn’t unusual for members to die on the job, as three did in 2025 alone.
Rahm Emanuel, a 66-year-old Democrat and Washington veteran, recently called for a mandatory retirement age of 75 for presidents, cabinet officials, members of Congress and federal judges. The former congressman, White House chief of staff and Chicago mayor said that should also apply to him, should he ever return to a major Washington job.
“Washington needs a good power washing,” Emanuel, who is exploring a possible 2028 presidential bid, said in an interview.
I put in those emphases.
I’m going to elide over the digs at Trump, because of course, everybody does that in passing when given the chance.
I wrote about those three Congressional deaths last year:
It both was and was not notable, given the ages and causes of death (Ages 70+, mainly cancer, all three male.)
We did have a more recent death, this year, where the 65-year-old Republican Doug LaMalfa died of a heart attack.
I calculated some stats at the time:
Median age:
Democrats: 57
Republicans: 58
Mean age:
Democrats: 58.5
Republicans: 57.3
Modal age:
Democrats: 49 (9 reps)
Republicans: 55 (10 reps)
The WSJ has its own graphs:
They also have a graph of age at inauguration for Presidents. Let me do something with that.
Misleading graphs: Age at Inauguration for Presidents
Yes, we know how old they were when we elected them. Or sworn in, as with LBJ.
I noticed they started with JFK.
Why? Come on, we know why.
Let me include ALL the presidents.
I’ll make it more useful, in that I’ll put in dates of inauguration, and not the people’s names, so maybe you can see a pattern….
Maybe you can see why Eisenhower (62 years old) and Truman (60 years old) were omitted from the “modern-era” presidents graph. That would have thrown off any concept of a “trend”.
In general, throughout U.S. history, the men who made it to the presidency were in their 50s. That was the peak of most men’s careers.
It’s only been a couple of old guys who have slipped through the last couple of terms. Even Trump was only just over 70 1/2 (no longer the required minimum distribution age) in 2017.
You might be interested in this next graph:
(Yes, there is only one dot for Grover Cleveland in here, and I used only his first inauguration for this one).
I could do how long past leaving office the presidents survived, but we know that is 0 for 8 of the presidents (4 assassinations, 4 natural deaths), which would have certain effects on a regression line. We can still see the effects of the 8 deaths in office, but with FDR’s long reign, he lasted longer than some men who had one term and dropped dead soon after being voted out.
You can see Jimmy Carter floating high above the rest, having the longest post-presidency ever.
But you can see there is a very weak correlation here, as it’s all a blob. Some of the younger guys had tragically young deaths, and some of the older guys were from the “modern era”, and lived long….
…but then, one of our longest-lived Presidents was John Adams, who died at almost the age of 91. He’s the 5th-longest-lived president, coming in after only the “modern” presidents of Jimmy Carter (100), George HW Bush (94), Gerald Ford (93.5), and Ronald Reagan (93.3).
The only thing I have to say about potential age limits for federal judges, Congresspeople, and the President is that it would take an amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Perhaps people are ready to do that.
Or maybe they could just not vote for superannuated politicians. It’s a choice.
For judges, it’s more of a bind — maybe people are fed up with that situation. It still would likely take an amendment, not merely legislation. I don’t see that addressed in the piece. Of course, Congress could start impeaching judges for incompetence (if they are senile). That’s also a choice.
Spreadsheet
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It must be snowing in Hell because Rahm and I agree on one thing.
Congressional mortality: The game-changer was installing air conditioning in the Capitol and its office buildings. DC summers are hot and last for many weeks. Now consider tubby Congressional members smoking ciggies and/or cigars, with clogged arteries and high blood pressure, in a building where the sun is merciless in its heat. Cars on the streets brought brown smog. Before cars, there was the miasma arising from horse manure & urine.
As with the Capitol itself, the older Congressional office buildings are recognizable by their tall windows (for air flow). I believe the Rayburn House Office Building, completed in 1960s, was the first to have AC in the Capitol complex.
While members left DC at the height of the summer, the heat was fierce enough at its beginning & end to take its toll.
An old story/legend says during the summer, the British embassy allowed its male staff to wear tropical clothing (white, short-sleeved shirts & Bermuda shorts, knee-high socks, and shoes). Because, as Noel Coward told us, mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun.