After years of fiercely defending President Joe Biden against criticism over his age and cognitive sharpness, The View co-host Ana Navarro appears to have executed a political pirouette — this time turning her attention, and ire, toward President Donald Trump.
In a recent episode of the daytime talk show, Navarro — a self-described Republican who spoke at the 2024 Democratic National Convention in support of Biden — joined her co-hosts in speculating about Trump’s intentions for a second (or possibly third) term in office. The conversation, predictably animated, took a sharp turn when co-host Sunny Hostin floated the theory that Trump was quietly preparing to refuse to leave the White House at the end of a second term. Her reasoning? That planned East Wing renovations must mean he’s in it for the long haul.
“He’s hooking up the White House because he doesn’t plan on leaving it!” Hostin said, suggesting Trump harbored ambitions of dictatorship. Navarro seized the moment to reinforce the idea: “He wants to be an emperor, he wants to be an authoritarian.”
The View-anon strikes again.
Sunny Hostin uses inciting rhetoric to claim Trump wants to be dictator for life and all the evidence is there: “I have come to the conclusion that he is most definitely going to try to remain in power, because remember, that East Wing it’s going to… pic.twitter.com/RaeGlJdlbg
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) October 27, 2025
But it was what she said next that revealed a telling contradiction. In a moment that might have gone unnoticed in a less polarized media climate, Navarro invoked the very argument she has spent months — even years — rejecting when used against Biden: age and health.
“Donald Trump is already the oldest president ever elected in history,” she said. “He would be 82 in 2028. We’ve all seen the swollen ankles, we’ve all seen the bruises on his hands … this is a man who is showing his age.”
The irony, of course, is hard to ignore. Navarro has been one of Biden’s most visible defenders in liberal media, repeatedly dismissing concerns about his halting speech, physical frailty, and highly publicized mental lapses — even in the wake of the infamous June 2024 debate that led to Biden’s eventual withdrawal from the presidential race. At the time, Navarro urged viewers to look past “one bad night” and insisted that criticisms of Biden’s age were politically motivated.
Yet now, with Trump’s name back in the spotlight, Navarro deploys the exact same talking points — bruises, gait, and age — that were deemed off-limits or even discriminatory when applied to Biden.
Trump, to his credit, has publicly shut down the idea of a third term. In an interview with NBC’s Kristen Welker, he said plainly, “I’ll be an eight-year president, I’ll be a two-term president. I always thought that was very important.” Even so, speculation swirls — often fueled by critics eager to paint him as a would-be autocrat.
But speculation aside, the deeper issue here is the political double standard. If age and vitality are valid criteria for one candidate, they must be valid for all. Otherwise, the conversation devolves into partisan selectivity, not principled concern.
