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Doctor says Trump is 6-3, 239 pounds, and the Internet has so many athlete comparisons

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January 16, 2018 at 11:13 p.m. EST
Navy Rear Adm. Ronny L. Jackson, the lead White House doctor, said on Jan. 16 that President Trump’s “overall health is excellent.” (Video: Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post)

The results of President Trump’s first formal medical exam since taking office were announced Tuesday, and the big news was that the physician involved, Navy Rear Adm. Ronny L. Jackson, said the 71-year-old president received a perfect score on a cognitive test. However, other announced results were also of interest, particularly to those who couldn’t help but notice that Trump was listed at 6-3 and 239 pounds.

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Of course, sports fans are often very well-versed in athletes’ heights and weights, and they are aware that those listed numbers don’t always precisely correlate with reality. For example, Kevin Durant is famously taller than his listed height of 6-9, and toward the end of his playing days, Shaquille O’Neal was widely thought to be far heavier than his listed weight of 324 pounds.

Adding to some online observers’ skepticism that Trump’s measurements were accurate was the fact that 239 pounds, at 6-3, conveniently put his body mass index at 29.9 — just below the 30.0 threshold for him to be officially described as obese, rather than merely overweight. In any event, plenty of Internet users were happy to juxtapose photos of the president with those of athletes with similar listed heights and weights.

In fairness, those athletes have much more weight in sculpted muscle than Trump, whose body mass is distributed just a bit differently (also in fairness: this out-of-shape author is no one to talk). Jackson said that he has a goal for the president of losing 10-15 pounds through a regimen of diet and exercise, telling reporters, “He’s more enthusiastic about the diet part than the exercise part, but we’re going to do both.”

In general, though, Jackson was upbeat about Trump’s physical condition, prompting questions about how a septuagenarian man with such seemingly poor habits, including little apparent exercise apart from golfing (while driving in carts) and an affinity for greasy fast food, could fare so well in a thorough examination. “It’s called genetics,” the physician replied with a shrug.

“The answer to your question is that he has incredibly good genes,” added Jackson, “and it’s just the way God made him.”

Nevertheless, some took issue not just with the president’s listed weight, but his height, as well. Photos were posted comparing Trump, at a purported 6-3, to his predecessor, Barack Obama, who was listed at 6-1.

Jackson, who has been the lead White House doctor since 2013 and oversaw two of Obama’s physicals, told media members Tuesday that 12 other doctors consulted on Trump’s examination, which lasted more than three hours. Before he spoke, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders read a letter from former longtime White House physician Richard J. Tubb, who trained Jackson and vouched for his integrity.

Scenes from Trump’s second six months in office

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Police officers applaud a line by U.S. President Donald Trump (R) as he delivers remarks about his proposed U.S. government effort against the street gang Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, to a gathering of federal, state and local law enforcement officials at the Long Island University campus in Brentwood, New York, U.S. July 28, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

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