Donald Trump announced the revival of the Presidential Physical Fitness Test on Tuesday while also taking a moment to dissuade a young girl from pursuing volleyball.
‘What do you play?’ Trump asked the unidentified youngster at the Oval Office.
The child was among a group on hand with golf legend Gary Player to see the President replace former First Lady Michelle Obama’s student health program with the fitness test.
‘I play volleyball, and in the summer, I’m trying to get into soccer,’ the young lady told the smiling Trump.
The President then questioned her physical ability to play volleyball.
‘Wow,’ he began, ‘and with your height, do you smash the ball, the volleyball?’
Trump suggested to the girl (left) that she was too short for volleyball and should play soccer
Trump discussed his own physique and the controversy of trans athletes in women’s sports
The girl offered a polite ‘no’ in response.
‘Can you jump high?’ Trump asked.
‘Not very,’ she responded.
Trump followed with some unsolicited advice: ‘Soccer might be better.’
And the President wasn’t done there.
When one boy said he’d been lifting weights, Trump took the opportunity to address the politics of transgender athletes in female sports.
‘Did you see that they had a man powerlifter and he decided to go the opposite direction?’ Trump asked the boy. ‘Took a record, stood for 18 years. He beat it by 119 pounds, okay? They put the little quarter of an ounce, quarter of a ounce, and the 18 years it stood, this guy came, he was a failed powerlifter.
‘But he went on the other side and he decided that he wanted to go into women’s sports and he broke the record by 118 pounds,’ Trump continued.'[Do you] think that’s fair?’
Trump also poked fun of his own physique.
‘I work out so much,’ he said. ‘Like, about one minute a day, max. If I’m lucky.’
In addition to Player, current pro golfer Bryson DeChambeau and former New York Mets pitcher Noah Syndergaard were also on hand for the event.
