With many celebrities in tow, President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday restoring a presidential council on fitness and bringing back the Presidential Fitness Test.
“I’m delighted to be here with some of the truly great sports legends of all time as we formally announce the newest members of the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition,” Trump said. “This is an important step in our mission to make America healthy again, something that’s very important.”
Among the sports stars on hand were Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker, golf legends Annika Sorenstam and Bryson DeChambeau, wrestler Paul “Triple H” Levesque, NFL Hall of Fame linebacker Lawrence Taylor, and Cody Campbell, a former Texas Tech football player and fellow at the pro-Trump America First Policy Institute.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower established the President’s Council on Youth Fitness in 1956, Fox News reported, with Lyndon B. Johnson creating the Presidential Physical Fitness Award in 1966. President Barack Obama later axed the Presidential Fitness Test and replaced it with the Presidential Youth Fitness Program.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, had lamented the growing “softness” of the American public and supported the initiative during his administration.
“The executive order will be focused on strengthening athletics in our country and making America healthy again,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said earlier Thursday. “And we are going to reimplement the Presidential Fitness Test in America’s schools, which is, I think, something all Americans can get behind.”
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Trump has been involved in the sports world for decades. He’s a boxing and mixed martial arts fan, plays golf almost every weekend, and has attended several college and professional football games since taking office. Trump and the other representatives said this initiative promotes health for the general population rather than for college or professional athletes.
“We just want kids to do better,” Vice President JD Vance said. ‘We want them to be healthier, we want them to be happier, and we know that getting out there, playing in sports, and being active, healthy, and physically fit is a critical part of this.”