Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday to bring back the presidential fitness test, a series of physical tests for schoolchildren in the US that was in place for decades but suspended 12 years ago to focus less on competition and more on healthy lifestyles.
Trump announced the test’s revival in a press event with famous athletes, praising the golfers, football players and a pro-wrestler for their achievements and physiques. The executive order will also re-establish the president’s council on sports, fitness, and nutrition.
“This is an important step in our mission to make America healthy again,” Trump said in a press conference on Thursday. “It’s something that’s very important, what we’re doing, very important. Dating back to the administration of President Dwight D Eisenhower, this council has championed the vigor and strength and vitality of the American people today. We continue that very proud tradition.”
The presidential fitness test was required in public schools in some form from the late 1950s until 2013, when it was changed into a program less focused on specific feats of strength.
The test involves activities like a one-mile run, sit-ups, push-ups, pull-ups and a sit-and-reach. People who participated in the program as children often have memories , both fond and not, of their experiences attempting these challenges in their gym classes.
“It was a big deal. This was a wonderful tradition, and we’re bringing it back,” Trump said. “It’s turned out to be very, very popular to do.”
Robert F Kennedy Jr, the health secretary, will administer the fitness program. There will also be criteria for a “presidential fitness award”. In past iterations of the program, the top 15% of performers would receive the award.
“MAKE AMERICA FIT AGAIN!” Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, wrote in a post on X about reintroducing the test. The fitness test aligns with the make America healthy again movement’s focus on physical wellness and exercise.
Trump, an avid golfer, reportedly believes exercise is “misguided”, as a person is “born with a finite amount of energy”, the New Yorker reported in 2017.
