Elon Musk Says People Over 70 Should Not Run for Office in Apparent Dig at Biden and Trump

The Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk believes that septuagenarians are too old to run for high office.

In what could be a dig at President Joe Biden or his predecessor Donald Trump, Musk said that there must come a point when a politician's time is up.

"Let's set an age limit after which you can't run for political office, perhaps a number just below 70..." said his tweet which as of Thursday morning had been liked more than 76,000 times.

Musk did not specify whether he was referring to the U.S. presidency, which has a lower age limit of 35 but no upper age limit.

However, his latest message comes amid question marks over Biden's fitness for office, which has been scrutinized by commentators and pollsters one year into his presidency.

Biden is the oldest person to ever serve as president and turned 79 on November 20.

He will be in his eighties on the campaign trail for the next presidential election in 2024. If he is re-elected and serves a full second term, Biden would leave office aged 86.

A poll by Fox News, which is typically critical of the Democratic president, found that most Americans (53 percent) believe his age was interfering with his ability to do his job as president.

The survey by Beacon Research and Shaw & Company Research found views differed across party lines; with 80 percent of Republicans saying Biden's age affected his performance compared with 28 percent of Democrats.

Speculation about Biden's mental acuity, particularly among his conservative critics, often increases if there is a gaffe and raises question marks over whether he will run in 2024. Last month, the White House said that Biden does intend to run for re-election.

The same questions over age could be leveled at Trump, who is flirting with running again in 2024 and enjoys considerable support within the GOP.

Now 75, Trump would be 77 on the campaign trail and 78 in 2024, the same age Biden was when he took the oath of office.

However, both would be spring chickens in seeking election for high office compared with Mahathir bin Mohamad, who was 92 and 141 days old when he was elected again as Malaysia's Prime Minister in 2018.

Musk draws on a wide palette of topics to tweet about in messages that have the power to move cryptocurrency markets. He revealed last month that he often makes his public pronouncements from the most private of places, the toilet.