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Is Trump the plumpest US President in recent times?

February 22, 2017 14:53 IST

The irony is that Trump detests fat people...

Donald J Trump is the oldest man to be elected America's president.

He turned 70 on June 14, 2016. Ronald Reagan, the next oldest man to be president, was a couple of months short of 70 when he was elected in November 1980.

Trump is also the first billionaire to be president.

And the first president to be married thrice.

Could he also be the fattest man to be Prez since World War II?

Trump detests fat people -- he has made his distate for overweight folk known several times; is that why his wife, daughters, sons and son-in-law are all sleek and slim? -- which makes it doubly ironic that POTUS is clearly more than plump.

When his coat billows in the wind, it reveals a belly clearly blessed by a rich and long life lived.

His doctor claimed last year that Trump was 6' 3" tall and weighed 236 pounds or 107 kg.

The Washington Post asked five random experts to weigh in on the then candidate's avoirdupois, and their estimates ranged from 102 kg to 114 kg.

The Donald, it seems, needs to lose weight, in addition to a lot more else.

Barring Bill Clinton who loved chomping on junk food and guzzling sodas and was often on the wrong side of tubbiness, Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H W Bush, George W Bush were all presidentially slim.

Of course, it would be tough to detech an extra ounce of flesh on Trump's predecessor, who was a slender portrait of grace from his first inauguration on January 20, 2009 to January 20, 2017 when he handed over the presidential mace to a man many in America believe does not deserve it.

Compare America's 45th President with some of his recent predecessors:

 US President Donald Trump, right, with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe

IMAGE: As he shakes hands with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Donald Trump reveals his girth. February 10, 2017. Photograph: Jim Bourg/Reuters

 Barack and Michelle Obama

IMAGE: Barack and Michelle Obama depart Oahu, Hawaii, January 1, 2017, 19 days before he stepped down as president. Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

 George W Bush

IMAGE: George W Bush jokingly moves back and forth between his portrait and Laura Bush's at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, December 19, 2008. Photograph: Jim Young/Reuters

 Bill Clinton

IMAGE: President Bill Clinton (rear row, second left) with former Presidents George H W Bush (rear row, left), Gerald Ford (rear row, second right) and Jimmy Carter (rear row, right) and first ladies, past and present, Barbara Bush (front row, left), Lady Bird Johnson (front row, second left), Hillary Rodham Clinton (front row, centre), Betty Ford (front row, second right) and Rosalynn Carter (front row, right) in the state dining room at the White House, November 9, 2000.
Clinton and the former presidents celebrated the 200th anniversary of the White House.
Photograph: William Philpott/Reuters

 Ronald Reagan and George H W Bush

IMAGE: President Ronald Reagan, second, left, and then vice-president George H W Bush, second, right, with their wives Nancy, left, and Barbara, after Reagan endorsed Bush's run for the presidency, May 11, 1988. Photograph: George Bush Presidential Library and Museum/Reuters

 

A C Dhillon