It's easy to see our country's youth getting soft by watching the old man sitting in his yard on a lawn chair (of course, wearing plaid socks with sandals), pointing and laughing at the kid who's winded after tying his shoes.
After decades of using American schoolyards as a proving ground for excuse-making, BMI charts, and, of course, those lovely participation trophies, President Donald Trump rolled a medicine ball through the heart of those trends, knocking them away like bowling pins.
The Presidential Fitness Test is making a comeback.
This version won't be a watered-down test, ensuring that young Davey doesn't feel bad because he can't tie his shoes without stretching first. The President is bringing back the real thing: pull-ups, sit-ups, the mile run: exposing our kids to the kind of grit that separates children from adults.
The president “wants to ensure America’s future generations are strong, healthy, and successful,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement, and that all young Americans “have the opportunity to emphasize healthy, active lifestyles — creating a culture of strength and excellence for years to come.”
Backed by an executive order, flanked by winning athletes, Trump stood tall in the Roosevelt Room, giving his full-throated endorsement of effort, discipline, and measurable results.
He's not simply signing a document; he's delivering a challenge.
Strength, Faith, and Swagger: Meet the New Faces of the Council
Trump refused to be surrounded by spineless bureaucrats or Zoom call avatars. He brought in people who sweat when performing their jobs.
The 2020 U.S. Open champion, Bryson DeChambeau, was appointed chairman of the President's Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition. DeChambeau literally bulked up on purpose so he could crush golf balls into the stratosphere at Mach 2, and he is now leading the charge. He's not a carpetbagger of old, selling powder concoctions, calling himself a fitness influencer; he's the living embodiment of the guy who wouldn't quit.
Following DeChambeau was Harrison Butker, the Kansas City Chiefs kicker who triggered the media and lefty athletes like Venus and Serena Williams into orbit because in a commencement speech, he had the temerity of speaking about God, family, masculinity, and, despite what the lazy left media chose to hear, spoke positively about women choosing to forgo their careers to stay home and raise a family. Butker's presence illustrates more than athletic skill; his pro-family beliefs are a cultural gauntlet thrown down at the feet of a "progressive" establishment that treats masculinity as a seed of evil.
Rounding out Trump's trifecta was Lawrence Taylor, the linebacker who kept opposing quarterbacks awake at night, sweating in fear knowing they had to face the Hall of Famer on Sunday. By adding Taylor, Trump is sending a clear message that America celebrates fragility instead of toughness.
The president wants to quickly flip that script.
A Kennedy in Charge: Just Not the One the Left Was Hoping For
There's an irony, if anybody is paying attention, with the person overseeing the relaunch. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s last name once symbolized youthful vigor in the face of a new frontier.
Until RFK Jr. went rogue and joined Trump's America First cabinet, the left and media, redundant phrase here, enjoyed making him their maverick. In what might be considered tough love, Kennedy will tell kids to toughen up and become stronger instead of exposing their sensitivity.
The White House points to Kennedy to coordinate state-level implementation while DeChambeau and the council rebuild the award structure.
Like a phoenix, the Presidential Physical Fitness Award will rise from the ashes, removing any connection to President Obama's flaccid "Youth Fitness Program."
Yes, young Davey will actually compete and fail if he falls short of the benchmarks.
When your progressive lefty brother-in-law asks, you can tell him, "No," there will be no mental health hotline for the kids finishing last in the mile run.
The Ghost of JFK Lifts Weights With Trump
This program wasn't pulled out of thin air. President Dwight Eisenhower introduced the original Presidential Fitness Test in response to a 1950s study that showed American youth were falling behind their European counterparts in physical readiness. President John F. Kennedy endorsed the program as part of his Cold War strategy, recognizing that physical fitness was closely tied to national defense.
JFK was right.
In his 1960 Sports Illustrated column, Kennedy famously wrote:
This is heartening progress and has helped to chart the course for our future activity. But it must be viewed as only a small beginning in a Nation where 60 percent of the school children do not participate in regular physical fitness programs, where millions of adults neglect their needs for regular exercise, where general levels of physical vitality are being surpassed by other developed nations.
Writing on this subject a year and a half ago, I stressed the importance of physical fitness to our national strength, the subtle but undeniable relationship of physical vigor to our capacity to undertake the enormous efforts of mind and courage and will, which are the price of maintaining the peace and ensuring the continued flourishing of our civilization. And this importance still exists. But fitness is vital for a still more basic reason. It is vital because it is the basis of the health and vitality of the individual citizen. And these are qualities which are essential if each American is to be free to realize fully the potential value of his own capabilities and the pursuit of his individual goals. In the final analysis, it is this liberation of the individual to pursue his own ends, subject only to the loose restraints of a free society, which is the ultimate meaning of our civilization.
Like excellent bourbon, that quote didn't age; it matured. Now, President Trump is using it as a battle cry, yelling into the void, a world where enemies aren't simply overseas, but inside our culture: sloth, passivity, victimhood, and worst of all, the bureaucrats normalizing them.
From Excellence to Obesity: What the Test Used to Be
Asking any Gen Xer or early millennial what the Presidential Fitness Test meant will result in eyebrows tightening when they share memories of sweating and dealing with bruised egos. Some remember the feeling of glory when they earned that red, white, and blue patch. They either met the standard or didn't. Schools didn't provide counselors or safe rooms to reassure kids after they failed the rope climb.
Our testing back then was:
- One-mile run
- Pull-ups (or flexed arm hang)
- Shuttle run
- Sit-ups
- Sit-and-reach flexibility
It was a scoreboard, not a wellness check, and each kid knew where they stood.
That clarity disappeared like Bernie when the meal check arrived, when the Obama administration decided to reinvent the wheel. The "Presidential Youth Fitness Program" quietly lowered the bar, emphasising individual improvement over competitive balance.
In 2012, the assessment evolved into the Youth Fitness Program, which the government said “moved away from recognizing athletic performance to providing a barometer on student’s health.” Then-first lady Michelle Obama also promoted her “Let’s Move” initiative focused on reducing childhood obesity through diet and exercise.
Why? What if little Davey cried?
Of Course, the Media Is Screaming
It's a day ending in "Y," so the drive-bys are screaming their fool heads off.
MSNBC screams racism, CNN worried about "toxic athletics," while others questioned whether Trump's team of "hyper-masculine icons" might traumatize the kids who aren't athletically inclined.
Meanwhile, in flyover country, parents are cheering because they're tired of watching their kids develop trigger thumb from endless scrolling and growing flabby listening to the constant drumbeat from lectures on safe spaces and sugar substitutes.
President Trump isn't bringing back a test; he's trying to revive the mindset that America doesn't rise from coddling, but from doing the work.
Final Thoughts
The Presidential Fitness Test isn't about using perfect form or having an Instagram body; it's about grit. By signing this order, President Trump reminds a country that has been in physical decline that strength isn't just physical; it's cultural, spiritual, and, most critically of all, it's earned.
As a society, we need more running, sit-ups, and pull-ups. Our country needs a solution that eliminates whining.
If the left wants to cry about that, let them. I know it's only a matter of time before "progressives" start spewing their ignorance by relating this program to the Hitler Youth. I hope I'm wrong about that.
But first, America has work to do, and, finally, the kids who'll get back to doing it.
