Publicly speculating about someone’s weight is not okay. In general, I think our society puts too much emphasis on weight as a health metric. Plus, your physical appearance has nothing to do with your worth as a person. Like many millennials, I’m absolutely appalled when I look back at how stars like Britney Spears and Jessica Simpson were publicly ridiculed for their size in the early 2000s, and I’m thankful that today people are more aware that mocking celebrities’ weight is damaging to all of us.
But I’m willing to make an exception for Donald Trump.
To be clear, I don’t actually care how much the former president weighs. And I still think it’s gross when people make fun of him for being overweight. But I can’t deny that Trump lying about his weight while being booked at Fulton County Jail in the Georgia election-interference case is hilarious. Here’s why:
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It’s such an obvious lie.
As we were awaiting the release of Trump’s mug shot on Thursday night, the jail released records listing inmate No. P01135809 as six feet, three inches tall and 215 pounds.
The last time Trump’s weight was publicly reported was 2018, when then–White House physician Ronny Jackson said Trump was in “excellent” physical and mental health and put him at six feet, three inches and 239 pounds. People did not buy this at the time. So-called “girthers” noted that these stats conveniently put Trump’s body mass index at 29.9, just below the 30.0 threshold for obesity. People on social media posted photos of Trump next to fit athletes who supposedly had the same body measurements. And we later learned that Jackson, who is now a congressman from Texas, has some credibility issues.
So now Trump is 24 pounds lighter than the weight few believed in the first place? This 215 figure is being widely mocked on social media and in cable news coverage:
This should come as no surprise to Trump’s team. Not because BMI is an accurate measure of health or 239 pounds looks the same on everyone, but because reporters quickly learned that the stats were self-reported. Within minutes of Trump’s arrest, the New York Times revealed that “his form is said to have been filled out by aides, not done by officials at the jail.”
To paraphrase Homer Simpson, 239 pounds turns into a lower but more plausible 229 pounds so easily. Trump just got greedy.
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It exposes Trump’s deep insecurity.
Trump’s repeated lies about his weight (and other physical features) shows he’s still very sensitive about his appearance — which is actually kind of sad. He’s revered by his supporters, and he was never going to lose his job as president of the United States due to weight discrimination. He’s been married to three conventionally attractive women. His wealth means he does not have to deal with squeezing into a commercial airline seat, ill-fitting department-store clothing, or any of the other ways our society makes life uncomfortable for average people with larger bodies.
Trump is a rich and powerful guy with a passion for fast food and bizarre ideas about how exercise will kill you. Just own it!
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Trump loves to call other people fat.
The No. 1 reason that I don’t feel much sympathy for Trump on this issue is that no one is nastier than him when it comes to publicly mocking other people for their weight. Trump is generally obsessed with people having “the look,” any while most people know it’s no longer socially acceptable to call people “fat,” he has no such compunctions. Here are just a few examples:
- When it emerged during the 2016 campaign that Trump had called former Miss Universe Alicia Machado “Miss Piggy,” he doubled down, declaring, “You know, she gained a massive amount of weight and it was a real problem.”
- During a 2016 debate, he laughed off a question about whether he still thinks it’s okay to call women “fat pigs, slobs, and disgusting animals,” saying he’d only applied the terms to nemesis Rosie O’Donnell (which is untrue).
- In 2019, Trump made fun of a protester (who turned out to be one of his supporters), announcing at a rally, “That guy’s got a serious weight problem,” and instructing the man to go home and “start exercising.”
- Just a few weeks ago, Trump essentially called Chris Christie a “fat pig,” then pretended he didn’t.
- He once managed to body-shame an aircraft carrier.
If Trump doesn’t have to tell us what he actually weighs, I don’t have to pretend it’s not funny that this nasty hypocrite cares so much about keeping it a secret.
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