Over 2,700 words would seem to be quite a superabundance of prose when you have but one point to make, especially when that point can be made in four words: Donald Trump is overweight. But the folks at Politico did just that last week, releasing a breathless piece declaring “Donald Trump is the least athletic president in generations. Here’s why it matters.”
It matters, apparently, because—well, even thousands of words later, we’re not quite sure. The president, it is no secret, has not kept up the athleticism of his youth. The only sport he plays these days is golf. (Though, no doubt, his fingers get a good workout every morning as he tweets away.) Politico somewhat snootily suggests that “swinging a [golf] club about 70-80 times in five hours isn’t exactly physically taxing.” The Scrapbook begs to differ—giving the old niblick and mashie a workout may not be a sweaty business, but it is perfectly respectable physical activity for a septuagenarian. Then again, the magazine does have a point when it knocks Trump for not only using golf carts, but for driving them on the greens. (It helps that Trump usually owns the golf course.)
Addressing this weighty issue, Politico sniffs, “The red states that went for Trump tend to have higher rates of obesity, sedentary lifestyles and . . . shorter lifespans.” Perhaps it helped Trump with voters that he didn’t hector them about their health. His weight may be a key to understanding how a plutocrat could come across as a man of the people.
Trump’s love of fast food and disdain for the gym lead Politico to conclude that he isn’t “fit”—and, yes, they seem to mean it in both senses of the word. But is it even remotely conceivable that had Hillary Clinton—not exactly a gym rat—been elected, Politico would have had the gall to chide her for not being svelte?
