No, Trump is not the fattest president

He probably is lying about his height, though.

Tomas McIntee

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Modified from this public domain image.

“Girthers” suspect that President Donald Trump’s vital statistics are misrepresented, and that he has a serious obesity problem.

Even considering the uncertainty over Trump’s height and weight, he is definitely not the fattest president in history. He might be pushing second place, but even that isn’t likely.

The first thing to understand is that Trump does seem to have padded his vital statistics. His 2012 driver’s license and 1961 draft card both list a height of 6′2″. In other words, there is an official chain of records stretching from 1961 to 2012 showing him with a height of 6′2″. Trump currently claims to be 6′3″. It is most likely that his actual current height is about 6′1″.

The front of Trump’s draft card

Height reporting errors are common

First, it’s worth understanding that it’s very common for people, especially men, to add 1–2″ to their heights. Men’s self-reported heights are generally around 1″ taller than those measured by medical professionals; OKCupid published an estimate that men add an average of 2″ to their height on

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Tomas McIntee
Tomas McIntee

Written by Tomas McIntee

Dr. Tomas McIntee is a mathematician and occasional social scientist with stray degrees in physics and philosophy.

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