The Republican nominee, a peddler of quack politics, appears today on the daytime show hosted by Dr. Mehmet Oz, a peddler of quack medicine. But because the show was taped yesterday, and details from the interview leaked from the studio audience to the press like water through a colander, we know that Trump told Oz that he doesn’t exercise—unless you count hand gestures during campaign events.
Hand gestures do not count as exercise. Neither does speaking, which Trump, in an interview with People magazine last year, claimed “is almost a form of exercise.” So the question becomes: Has he ever exercised?
Hit the links to stay fit. I used to play all sports. I was always a good athlete. I was always the captain of my teams. I still play golf and I do well at that. Staying in shape is very important. Sometimes for me that’s a long walk. More often, it’s a game of golf, which some people might not consider exercise, but I’ll tell you: When I play a few rounds on the weekend, I’ll come in Monday morning and I’ll have lost 3 or 4 pounds.
Given that Trump is a pathological liar, we cannot be sure of his youthful athletic prowess. And a Quora page on this pressing question rightly notes, “Riding a golf cart while stuffing your face with fast food does not count.” Trump apparently rides a cart while golfing, rather than walking the course (and we’re all familiar with his refined love of fast food). Thus, he is not exercising when he golfs.
But a Google Images search turns up definitive evidence that Trump has exercised at least once in his life: The photo above shows him jogging, however slightly, during the Olympic torch relay on June 19, 2004, in New York City. A YouTube search, meanwhile, reveals Trump swung a tennis racket precisely four times at a 2015 event with Serena Williams. (The first ball went long, the second went into the crowd, the third went into the net, and the fourth was probably out but Trump will forever claim that he scored a point on Williams.)
Google did turn up one other relevant image, and it proves that Trump has indeed exercised on a golf course. It was taken in 1997 at his Mar-a-Lago course in Palm Beach, for a New Yorker profile. Wearing a dark suit and no tie, he’s performing a sort of half-jumping-jack: legs spread wide, but with his hands shoved in his pockets in an attempt—I can only conclude—to keep from losing all of his pennies.