Former Fox News star Bill O’Reilly just made headlines this week by calling on Preside Donald Trump to temporarily resign.
Coming from a man who has known the president for 35 years, it landed differently.
At the end of his Wednesday No Spin News podcast, O’Reilly, 76, urged Trump, 80, to step away from the office during August and rest.
“OK. Final thought of the day. As you know, I’ve known the president 35 years and he’s 80 years old right now. OK. So that puts him, if I can do the math quickly, 45, maybe early 40s when I met him in New York City,” O’Reilly said.
“Now, I’ve noticed that he is hunching over a little bit and, that’s normal. You get older, every malady in the world is going to visit you. I can’t even bore you with the stuff I got to deal with.”
“I was actually feeling sorry for myself the other day and I never do that,” he continued.
“So my advice to Donald Trump is to take the next month off if you can. Get into an environment where you like golf, and relax a little bit.”
O’Reilly said the strain of the high office was clearly getting to Trump, and that he needed some rest and recuperation time.
“You’ve got to deal with Iran. I understand that. Everybody understands it. But you can do that on the phone and you can do that with your people coming,” he said. “But… you need a breather. I need a breather and I’m going to build it into August. But he needs a breather much more than I do, OK?”
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O’Reilly has been a Trump supporter for years, and is one of the few media figures who has maintained a genuine friendship with the president across three decades. He’s also not naive about his own age and health, and said he’s building his own “breather” into August and warned listeners he could bore them “with the stuff I got to deal with.”
He’s not the only popular podcaster in Trump’s orbit who has quietly raised an eyebrow.
Joe Rogan, one of the biggest pro-Trump voices in the world, reportedly told people this year that Trump “doesn’t have many years left on his earth.”
Recently, The Wall Street Journal said aides were worrying about bruising on the president’s hands, frequent tiredness during public appearances, and a recent Walter Reed Hospital visit for an MRI.
The White House has pushed back on all concern, and has repeatedly said Trump is more energetic than any other president in history.
“He can work harder and he has a better memory and he has more stamina and has more energy than a normal mortal,” Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller told New York Magazine. “The headline of your story should be ‘The Superhuman President.'”
Trump himself said he’s proud of his health, even at age 80.
“I feel great. I mean, physically and mentally, I feel like I did 50 years ago.”
The president has not responded to O’Reilly’s temporary resignation advice.