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It’s official: Donald Trump is obese. The White House released the results of his annual physical showing that he had a BMI of 30.4 (243 pounds on a 6-foot, 3-inch body) which is above the cut-off of 30, indicating obesity. Although he gained four pounds in the last year, the White House physician, Dr. Sean Conley, reports that Trump “remains in very good health overall.”
Trump is hardly the only president to be obese. Taft had a BMI of 42.3, Cleveland’s was 34.6, McKinley's 31.1, Taylor's 30.2, and Teddy Roosevelt’s 30.2. Bill Clinton wasn’t obese, but with a BMI of 28.3, he was in the overweight category.
Despite earlier presidents’ obesity and Trump’s electoral success while substantially overweight, several aspirants to the presidency apparently feel the need to slim down prior to announcing their candidacy. According to the New York Times, candidates losing weight prior to running for president is a common occurrence. Recent candidate Jeb Bush talked about his Paleo diet, which resulted in a 40-pound weight loss, while Chris Christie had bariatric surgery in 2013 in anticipation of running for president.
Cory Booker, the New Jersey senator seeking the Democratic nomination, is a vegan who has recently lost weight. He said his goal is to be in “the best shape of my life” and has described his weight battles on social media, saying, “It has nothing to do with any other plans.”
New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, another declared Democratic candidate, posted a picture doing a Pilates workout and another picture lifting weights. In 2012, after losing 40 pounds, she outlined her daily diet for a women’s magazine. She said, “I’d always wanted voters to know that I’m a tenacious person, and what finally convinced them was that I’d possessed the determination to lose 50 pounds.”
Should a candidate's weight and weight loss battles be part of a discussion of their qualifications for office? If obesity is conceptualized as a matter of personal choice and responsibility, (i.e., “willpower”) then their weight issues could be a legitimate concern. However, from 1990 to 2017 the prevalence of obesity has increased by 127 percent. It would be hard to argue that this increase is a result of a massive decrease in “willpower.” Instead, it’s likely that the dramatic rise in obesity is a public health problem. Social and environmental changes over the past 27 years have resulted in increased obesity and an estimated 4.72 million additional deaths globally.
If obesity is a public health problem, a candidate’s BMI would have little to do with their qualifications for office. Instead of focusing on their weight, diet, or exercise routine, we should be concerned with a candidates’ plans to address public health issues, including government policies (e.g., taxing sugar-sweetened beverages), that would help stem the obesity epidemic.
