President Trump Reinstates Fitness Test for Kids

President Donald Trump has reinstated the Presidential Fitness Test in U.S. schools. The move is part of the president’s effort to “restore health and fitness to America’s youth,” according to a statement released by the White House. The Presidential Fitness Test, launched by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1966, was cancelled by the Obama administration in 2012. 

“Rates of obesity, chronic disease, inactivity, and poor nutrition are at crisis levels, particularly among our children,” The White House statement said. “These trends weaken our economy, military readiness, academic performance, and national morale.”

After holding nearly steady for several years, obesity rates between ages two and 19 have been on a steady rise since 2013, according to a 2024 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Trump’s order not only reinstates the Presidential Fitness Test and Award in schools it encourages youth to establish fitness goals and ensures they will have access to opportunities that encourage a healthy lifestyle. It also calls on the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition to partner with professional athletes, sports organizations, and influencers.

On Aug. 1, the White House announced the council was “revitalized,” with new members including professional golfer Bryson DeChambeau, who will serve as council chair; hockey legend Wayne Gretzky; and Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker. Butker faced media backlash in 2024 after sharing his pro-family values while delivering the commencement address at Benedictine College.

“This sedentary lifestyle is contributing to the spiritual malaise that we have in this country and the emotional and depressive state that so many of our kids are in,” Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told Fox News host Martha MacCallum.

Robin Gray, a 60-year-old woman from Arizona recalled her experience as a child doing the Presidential Fitness Test, telling The New York Times, “It was Darwinist.”

“Competition is part of life,” Kennedy told MacCallum.  “Parents have to be sensitive about how their children process experience, but they can’t tell them that life is not going to be hard and that life is not a competition.”

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