At a White House ceremony announcing the return of the Presidential Fitness Test, President Donald Trump and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spoke extensively about physical health, competition, and what they see as the importance of restoring national fitness standards for American youth.
Trump opened the event by praising golfer Bryson DeChambeau’s commitment to fitness. “Bryson is so much into physical fitness, all you have to do is take a look at him,” Trump said, before joking, “I think if you didn’t work out at all, you’d still look almost like you do right now.”
Speaking about the relationship between athleticism and intelligence, Trump argued that elite athletes often stand apart mentally as well as physically.
“One of the things I noticed about friends of mine, all of the great athletes here, is their mind is better than people that aren’t fit,” Trump said. “Because I think, once you hit a ball well, or you do whatever it is, you run well, or play hockey as great as you play it, once you get up to that league, it’s all about the mind.”
He added that physical ability alone is not enough at the highest level of sports.
“You obviously have to have a certain physicality. You can’t have somebody with a great mind and zero athletic talent, right?” he said.
When Kennedy brought up the story of his father completing a 50-mile hike, Trump jumped in with a joke about his own endurance.
“What about me?” Trump said. “You didn’t measure my mind.”
Kennedy then said, “He could do nine miles a day on a golf course every weekend…”
Trump joked and replied, “When I’m not using a car.”
Calling DeChambeau “a scientist with his body,” Trump credited the golfer with helping push for the return of the fitness award.
Trump also took aim at the Obama administration for discontinuing the original Presidential Fitness Test.
“We had the Obama administration which phased out this wonderful tradition of physical fitness,” Trump said sarcastically. “Thank you, Barack, very much. Great job. And we’re bringing it back.”
Kennedy followed by discussing the origins of the program under President John F. Kennedy, whom he described as deeply concerned about the physical condition of Americans.
“Almost immediately after my uncle was elected, he came across some federal data that showed that 5% of American kids were obese,” Kennedy said. “That was more than double the European number, and he became very concerned that Americans were becoming soft.”
Kennedy said JFK viewed the issue as larger than health alone.
“He published an article before his inauguration called ‘The Soft American,’” Kennedy explained. “In it, he said there’s a national security issue. It threatens our economy. We need a vigorous population that is in good shape spiritually, morally, physically if we’re going to continue to exercise leadership around the world.”
Reflecting on the original fitness tests, Kennedy described them as a memorable part of growing up for his generation.
“It was an enduring rite of passage for us that everybody in my generation remembers,” Kennedy said. “We did pull-ups, sit-ups, shuttle runs, and a number of other events, and it was a benchmark for measuring national physical fitness.”
Kennedy then criticized the Obama and Biden administrations for moving away from the test, saying the reasoning behind the decision was misguided.
“They said competition is not good for kids, which is not true,” Kennedy said. “If we’re going to be competitive internationally, we need to be competitive with each other.”
“We need to teach people how to win and how to lose and how to process victory and defeat,” he added.
Kennedy also pointed to what he described as a worsening health crisis in the United States.
“Since that time, the presidency has presided over the worst public health crisis in history,” Kennedy said. “We’re now the sickest nation in the world.”
Kennedy closed by thanking Trump directly for bringing the program back.
“I’m so grateful to President Trump for his leadership and his vision of reinstituting the physical fitness test,” Kennedy said. “He is challenging Americans to compete with each other in a friendly, congenial way and to get in shape so that we can prepare for a great future that this administration is going to provide for this country.”
