Donald Trump, Whose Own Doctor Rates Him As Obese, Mocks Rally Protester For Alleged ‘Serious Weight Problem’
President Donald Trump held a campaign rally on Thursday night in Manchester, New Hampshire, but when the rally was briefly interrupted by a protester, Trump took the opportunity to ridicule the man’s weight, according to a report on the rally from USA Today. Television cameras did not broadcast an image of the protester, making it impossible for viewers to determine exactly who the president was talking about.
“That guy’s got a serious weight problem,” Trump said as security officers led several apparent protesters out of the SNHU Arena. “Go home, start exercising.”
But the insult coming from Trump was arguably a case of projection, because at his latest physical exam in February, Trump’s own doctor rated his weight as “obese.” Trump weighed 243 pounds at the physical exam, according to a USA Today report, which was an increase of four pounds over the previous year’s weight.
“That makes him technically obese,” the USA Today report said, citing a statement issued by the White House.
Trump’s weight of 243 pounds put his body mass index over 30, which is the cutoff point for obesity.
Trump appeared to show some consciousness of his own weight issues when he continued at the rally, saying of the protester, “Got a bigger problem than I do. Got a bigger problem than all of us,” according to CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale, posting via his Twitter account.
Wow. Trump mocks a protester for purportedly being overweight.
"That guy has got a serious weight problem. Go home, get some exercise," he says. pic.twitter.com/Nsk1RxvQMf
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 16, 2019
The president had more to say about the allegedly overweight protester, going on to imply that the man lived at home with his mother.
“Now he goes home and his mom says, ‘What the hell have you just done?'” Trump ad-libbed to the New Hampshire crowd.
The rally marked Trump’s second visit to New Hampshire since taking office. In the 2016 election, Trump lost New Hampshire to Democrat Hillary Clinton, albeit by just four-tenths of a percentage point, according to results posted by Politico.
But Trump addressed that defeat during his Manchester rally as well, spinning an evidence-free conspiracy theory that voting in the state was somehow fixed so that he would lose.
“New Hampshire was taken away. It was taken away from us,” he said, as quoted via Twitter by Vox.com reporter Aaron Rupar. “I am not holding it against you because it was not your fault.”
While Trump received an enthusiastic and raucous welcome from his supporters at the rally, a recent poll showed that New Hampshire voters as a whole do not view Trump favorably. According to a Washington Post report, only 42 percent of Granite State residents say they approve of Trump’s job performance, with 53 percent disapproving, in a University of New Hampshire Survey Center poll released earlier this month.
