Doctors are warning that Donald Trump's expanding waistline has become more than a talking point, it is now, they say, a genuine medical concern.
The 80-year-old president has gained roughly 20 pounds (around 9kg) since his last campaign, according to his own statements and those of his aides. Physicians consulted by The Washington Post say the increase, layered on top of other troubling signs, deserves far more scrutiny than the White House has offered.
What 20 Pounds Means for a President's Health
Trump has already faced questions this year over bruising on his hands, swelling in his ankles and apparent drowsiness. Doctors say the weight gain adds a further, more chronic, risk to that list.
When Trump was booked in Georgia in August 2023 over election interference charges, his weight was recorded at 215 pounds (97.5kg). By May of this year, a medical report released by the White House put him at 238 pounds (108kg), an increase the administration has separately said includes roughly 14 pounds (6.4kg) gained between his two most recent annual physicals.
Trump is 6ft 3in (1.9m). His current BMI of 29.7 puts him just 0.7kg shy of the clinical threshold for obesity (30.0 on the NIH calculator). He was classified as obese during his first term, in both 2019 and 2020.
Doctors Say the Risk Is Real Even if BMI Is Imperfect
Physicians interviewed by the Post caution that BMI is a blunt instrument, but insist that does not make the underlying trend any less concerning. Scott Kahan, director of the National Center for Weight and Wellness, told the paper that obesity is a strong risk factor for numerous health issues, as well as premature disability and death.
Kahan went further, arguing the issue warrants presidential-level urgency, saying, 'Addressing obesity to protect the president's health should be a priority similar to ensuring Secret Service protections for his life.'
Other specialists focused less on Trump specifically and more on the broader danger of the fat that accumulates around the abdomen in later life. David Kessler, the former head of the Food and Drug Administration, spoke to the Post about the risks of excess weight for Americans generally, without commenting directly on the president. He described visceral fat as building up around organs where it does not belong, including the liver, pancreas and heart.
Fast Food, Little Exercise and Doctors' Concern
Trump's eating habits are hardly a secret. White House physicians have said they have advised the president, who has made little secret of his fondness for fast food and his distaste for intense exercise, to focus on losing weight, improving his diet and increasing physical activity.
Trump himself has acknowledged the goal. He has told Mehmet Oz, the television personality now overseeing Medicare and Medicaid, that he would like to drop 15 to 20 pounds (6.8 to 9kg).
Despite the numbers, the administration insists the president remains fundamentally healthy. Physicians have repeatedly said they are impressed by his energy and cognitive fitness, alongside other favourable markers.
Ronny Jackson, Trump's former White House physician and now a Texas congressman, wrote in a 2022 memoir that he told the president he 'would be a little healthier if he exercised and lost some weight,' but was otherwise 'in outstanding shape for his age'.
That framing, minor dietary tweaks rather than a genuine medical intervention, is precisely what outside doctors say has allowed the issue to drift. Kahan's comparison to Secret Service protection was deliberate: he is arguing that a chronic, gradually worsening condition deserves the same institutional seriousness as an acute physical threat, not a line in an annual physical memo.
The gap between the White House's reassurances and outside physicians' alarm is unlikely to close on its own. For the remainder of his term, Trump's weight will remain a live, and growing, health question, whether the administration treats it as one or not.
