Jimmy Kimmel has ruthlessly mocked President Donald Trump’s newest executive order to restore the Presidential Fitness Test in schools nationwide.
On Tuesday, Trump, 79, announced he was reinstating the test, an annual assessment of school-aged children’s athletic abilities, declaring that the “next few years will be a golden age of athletics.”
Later that night, Kimmel took aim at the president’s interest in fitness during his Jimmy Kimmel Live! opening monologue, quipping: “Trump is very into fitness. In fact, whenever somebody asks about the Epstein files, he sprints out of the room.
“Trump said the fittest kids will get to come to the White House and help build the ballroom,” he added. “Only Donald Trump would bring back a test he would have no chance of passing.”
Kimmel further suggested that Trump’s idea of a fitness test would involve seeing “how many Wendy’s tendies you can fit in your mouth.”
Jimmy Kimmel mocked Donald Trump’s new executive order to reinstate the Presidential Fitness Test in public schools nationwide (Getty)
Originally launched in the 1950s, the Presidential Fitness Test was a program that measured students’ strength, speed and endurance. Students who placed in the top 15 percent received awards. The assessment was retired during the Obama administration and replaced by the Presidential Youth Fitness Program, which focused more on individual progress rather than exceptionalism.
During Tuesday’s announcement, Trump was joined by athletes, students, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who said: “We need young, strong, healthy Americans, whether you serve in the military or any other aspect of your life. The idea that competition is bad is the beginning of decline of a nation.”
That afternoon, Trump spent part of the day teaching his fist-pumping “Macho Man” dance to the youth on the White House lawn. He also used the moment to rant to the children about transgender rights and “men in women’s sports.”
Trump invited athletes and young students to the Oval Office for the announcement (Reuters)
“You’ll never compete against women in powerlifting?” the president asked a young boy, who responded, “No, sir.”
“ Did you see that they had a man power lifter, and he decided to go the opposite direction… He was a failed power lifter, but he went on the other side, and he decided that he wanted to go into women’s sports, and he broke the record by 118 pounds,” Trump added, without clarifying who he was referring to.
Reacting to his remarks, Kimmel — who the president has recently called on ABC to fire — said: “ Very, very normal. Just a, a totally lucid, very rational, clear-minded, level-headed person sharing his thoughts on gender reassignment with a group of young kids.”