In 2015, budding presidential candidate Donald Trump dictated a letter for his doctor to sign testifying that, if successful, he would be “the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.”
Since then, his opponents have mocked his chutzpah (the letter also declared that his “physical strength and stamina are extraordinary”) while continuing to grimly warn that a man his age with his diet of fast food and Diet Coke, and Your exercise regimen (or lack thereof) may not be healthy.
His critics’ insistence that the new president of the United States is just one Big Mac away from a heart attack may contain a lot of wishful thinking, but it has nevertheless been manifested incessantly for years.
What happens under those strategically oversized suits can’t be good, they chorus, no matter what helpful doctors say.
Even his wife is reportedly worried. Last November, it was claimed that Melania and Robert F Kennedy Jr, her nominee for health secretary, were “joining” Trump in eating healthier, replacing fast food with lean proteins, salads and vegetables.
Two former Trump aides have testified that a typical Trump McDonald’s order consisted of two Big Macs, two Filet-O-Fish and a chocolate shake. In total, 2,430 calories.
And yet, if there is one area where Trump continues to defy detractors, it is his health and, perhaps most importantly for the “leader of the free world,” his stamina.
Of course, Trump has benefited from being compared to Joe Biden, now 82, whose declining physical and mental faculties were surprisingly covered up for years.
US President Donald Trump works behind the counter during a campaign event at McDonald’s restaurant on October 20 last year.

United States President Donald Trump and Florida Congressman Byron Donalds take their order at Downtown House of Pizza in downtown Fort Myers in April 2023.

Donald Trump drives a golf cart before the LIV Golf Invitational series tournament at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in August 2023.
However, during last year’s election campaign, Trump felt confident enough in his own abilities that, writing in X in October, he challenged Kamala Harris (18 years his junior) to take a test of “cognitive stamina and agility ” after her supporters claimed that she had been “Slow and lethargic in answering even the easiest questions.”
On Monday, at the age of 78 years and 220 days, he became the oldest person ever sworn in as president, surpassing Biden, who was five months younger when he was sworn in four years ago. One of his first acts was to reinstall a button on his desk in the Oval Office that automatically requests a glass of Diet Coke.
He didn’t exactly perform backflips at his swearing-in, but he also didn’t shuffle along with his wife and aides watching like hawks for any sign that he was about to fall, as was the case with Biden.
And while Uncle Joe couldn’t be trusted to even ask the time if the question wasn’t written for him on a teleprompter, Trump still prefers to speak spontaneously: of the two speeches he gave at the Capitol, one scripted and one , later, without him; there was little to choose between them in terms of fluidity and articulation.
And it was a marathon day for him. He attended a morning church service, had tea at the White House with Biden, spoke for half an hour at his swearing-in ceremony at the Capitol, gave an even longer post-inauguration speech, attended a Congressional luncheon, he reviewed the troops, gave another speech at his indoor presidential parade and signed dozens of executive orders in the Oval Office.
He then attended three inaugural balls where his duties included giving another ten-minute speech, speaking to troops in South Korea by video, cutting a cake with a saber, and dancing (three times) with Melania.
And he still had enough energy to repeatedly show off his signature fist dance at the YMCA by the Village People (who had performed live at the second dance he attended).
Even his fiercest critic can’t deny that that’s not bad for a 78-year-old man (and one, remember, who after being shot in the ear by a killer last July recovered in seconds, punching the air in defiance).

Donald Trump, his son Donald Jr, Elon Musk and RFK Jr with their McDonald’s meal on the way to a UFC fight

Donald Trump eating at McDonalds

President Donald Trump arrives to deliver pizza to firefighters at the Waukee Fire Department in January 2024.
Corey Lewandowski, who ran Trump’s 2016 campaign, recalled how “I would go work 14, 16, 18 hours a day and I wouldn’t eat because I was as focused as a professional athlete would be.”
What is your secret? Trump himself certainly has some ideas, although they are not necessarily shared by experts. For starters, Trump – whose older brother, Fred, died of alcoholism – says he has never drank alcohol, smoked cigarettes or taken drugs.
His health is worse: he only sleeps about four or five hours a night and considers golf his “main form of exercise.” Even then, he doesn’t walk between the holes but uses a golf cart.
Trump has justified this physical inactivity by promulgating a strange theory – popular among Victorians but not so much today – that the body is like a battery with a finite amount of energy. By exercising, you’re draining that battery and actually hurting yourself.
What else might be relevant? Scientists say genes play a role in health and life expectancy.
Trump’s property developer father, Fred, lived to be 93, while his mother, Mary Anne, the poverty-hardened daughter of a farmer from Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, lived to be 88.

President Donald Trump addresses the crowd during a campaign rally on October 6, 2018 in Topeka.
And as the son of a rich man, Trump will undoubtedly have benefited from the best medical treatment throughout his life.
Despite his claims to the contrary, critics have recently said there is evidence that Trump’s physical and mental faculties are declining.
The New York Times – one of his most enthusiastic critics – analyzed his speeches in October and concluded that he had lately seemed “confused, forgetful, incoherent or disconnected from reality.”
But others might point out that not much has changed there – Trump has always made gaffes, for example in 2019 by claiming that during the American Revolutionary War of the 1770s, rebels “took over the airports” from the British.
Opponents have also noted Trump’s reluctance to release his medical records. Presidential candidates in the United States are not required to disclose medical information about themselves, and although polls show that many voters have doubts about Trump’s advanced age, he has been even more cautious than Biden about revealing your medical records.
In 2018, while he was president, his White House doctor released a letter about his health that experts said showed he was borderline obese and had heart disease.
Over the next two years, doctors revealed that his weight had increased to just under 17.5 kilos, making him officially obese, but no further details have been released since he left office.

Former President Donald Trump chose a McDonald’s in Bucks County, a troubled area of Pennsylvania, for his turn at the fryer last October during the election campaign.

When asked about his first summer job and entry-level positions, Trump told DailyMail.com through the drive-thru last October: “Experience required, I’m reviewing the whole French fry thing.” It’s a whole process’
As for his brain, Trump has said he “passed” cognitive tests twice, but he has not released them and has not said whether he has taken any since 2018.
Trump has revealed that his father, Fred, was “rattled by Alzheimer’s” and some experts have said he could be at high genetic risk for dementia.
Speculation will inevitably continue and each new slip – physical or verbal – will be brandished as evidence.
Trump himself admitted in a 2022 interview that his health could prevent him from running for president again.
‘You always have to talk about health. “You seem to be in good health, but tomorrow you’re going to get a letter from a doctor telling you to come see me again,” he told the Washington Post. “That’s not good when they use the word ‘again,'” he said.
And yet, here he is back in the White House and, for better or worse, much the same as before.