America’s Gerontocracy is Almost Over

Generational change is arriving in Washington.

The torch is being passed.

It has become fashionable in the last few years to refer to the U.S. as a gerontocracy — a government led by old people — and not without good reason.

Before 2017, no president had ever entered office in their 70s. Until Donald Trump, then 70, became the oldest president at the time of their inauguration. His record was then promptly broken four years later by Joe Biden, who was 78 years and two months old when he was sworn in. Now, his record is about to be broken by Trump, who will be 78 years and seven months old in January.

The current House, with an average age of 58, is the third-oldest in U.S. history; the current Senate, average age of 64, is the second-oldest ever.

More than half of the Supreme Court, meanwhile, is nearing or above retirement age: Elena Kagan is 64, John Roberts is 69, Sonia Sotomayor is 70, Samuel Alito is 74, and Clarence Thomas is 76.

But now, the tide is turning: a wave of generational change is about to crash onto the banks of the Potomac.

Let’s start with the executive branch. As noted, Trump is about to become the third consecutive oldest-ever-president. But don’t let that mask the fact that he is putting together a historically young administration, something that has been overlooked in much of the coverage of his Cabinet.

At 40, JD Vance is set to become the third-youngest vice president in history, behind only Richard Nixon (who was a few months younger when he also became VP at 40) and John Breckinridge (who became James Buchanan’s No. 2 at the ripe age of 36).

Going further down the presidential line of succession, Trump’s picks for the top four Cabinet jobs — Marco Rubio (State), 53; Scott Bessent (Treasury), 62; Pete Hegseth (Defense), 44; and Pam Bondi (Justice), 59 — are younger than those of any of his recent predecessors. Their average age is 54.5 (and would have been 50.25 if Trump had gotten his first pick for Justice, 42-year-old Matt Gaetz).

The average age of the “Big Four” Cabinet secretaries was 64.5 in Trump’s first term, 66.75 under Biden; 57.5 under Barack Obama; 63.5 under George W. Bush; and 61.5 under Clinton.

In addition to Vance, the upper echelon of Trump’s administration also includes two other millennials: UN Ambassador-designate Elise Stefanik, 40, and Director of National Intelligence-designate Tulsi Gabbard, 43. (Biden’s included only one, Pete Buttigieg.) His White House team will feature deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, 39, and press secretary Karoline Leavitt, 27, who will be the youngest press secretary in history — and the highest-profile member of Gen Z in any of the three branches of government.

The two oldest Supreme Court justices, Thomas and Alito, are likely to retire during Trump’s administration; if they do, and if Trump replaces them with young successors (as is likely), a majority of the court will be in their 40s or 50s for the first time in living memory.

And that brings us to Congress, which has been called (by 52-year-old Nikki Haley) the “most privileged nursing home” in the country.

When Biden took office, the top four congressional leaders were Nancy Pelosi, then 80; Mitch McConnell, 78; Chuck Schumer, 70; and Kevin McCarthy, 56. In the next Congress, they will be Schumer, 74; John Thune, 64; Hakeem Jeffries, 54; and Mike Johnson, 52 — bringing the average age of the foursome down a decade, from 71 in 2021 to 61 in 2025. (They are also all relatively new to their positions, unlike the Biden-era group: Schumer is the only one who has spent more than a single full term atop his caucus.)

Even more striking signs of generational turnover have been playing out within the House Democratic Caucus, which has long been one of the most aging corners of the Hill.

Historically, House Democrats have remained highly deferential to the seniority system; without term limits on their committee leaders, that has yielded a caucus led by members like Maxine Waters, 86, the top Democrat on the Financial Services Committee; Rosa DeLauro, 81, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee; and Bennie Thompson, 76, the top Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee.

In the past week, two Democratic committee leads — Natural Resources Committee ranking member Raúl Grijalva, 76, and Judiciary Committee ranking member Jerry Nadler, 77 — have announced they will not seek to keep their posts in the next Congress. That may not sound significant, but it amounts to a sea change for House Democrats, who have historically allowed their committee chieftains to continue serving long after qualifying for the Early Bird Special.

Both Grijalva and Nadler stepped aside under duress, facing challenges from members more than 15 years their junior: Jared Huffman, 60, and Jamie Raskin, 61, respectively. (These sorts of challenges are rare; it is rarer still that both ended up proving successful.) A third Democratic ranking member (David Scott, 79, of the Agriculture Committee) may soon meet the same fate; both Jim Costa, 72, and Angie Craig, 52, have announced challenges against him.

These unusual committee shuffles may unlock even more generational change in Congress: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 35, is expected to enter the race to be Oversight Committee ranking member now that Raskin, the panel’s current top Democrat, is moving over to Judiciary. Other members are likely to seek the role, but if she proves successful, Ocasio-Cortez would become the House Democrats’ youngest committee leader.

Don’t get me wrong: millennials and Generation Z haven’t overtaken government just yet. Donald Trump is 78. The highest-profile progressive in the Senate, Bernie Sanders, is 83. The incoming chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Chuck Grassley, is 91.

But the aging generation of pols that has long led Washington is (finally) beginning to call it quits. The next four years may end up becoming something of a transition period, as longtime fixtures like Sanders and Grassley serve their final terms, giving way to a rising generation of successors that is already — as seen in the House Democratic power struggles — beginning to throw around their weight.

Then, at the end of it, the next presidential election could become the most youthful in decades. If selected by Republicans, Vance, who will be 44 in 2028, would the youngest presidential nominee since JFK in 1960 — and will likely face a Democratic Gen X’er, like Gretchen Whitmer (who will be 57), Josh Shapiro (who will be 55), Wes Moore (who will be 50), or even millennial Ocasio-Cortez (who will be 39).

It would be the first election since 2000 — nearly three decades earlier — to feature two candidates in their 50s or younger.

Soak it in, folks: you may be witnessing the last gasps of American gerontocracy.