On May 5, 2026, Donald Trump signed a proclamation restoring the Presidential Fitness Test Award.
Watch the entire Oval Office signing ceremony on C-Span here.
The Presidential Physical Fitness Award Program was first established in 1966 by President Lyndon B. Johnson to acknowledge youth who met or exceeded the 85th percentile on a list of physical fitness activities. At the time of its discontinuation in 2012 the activities included:
- running one mile
- performing as many sit-ups as possible in 60 seconds
- performing pull-ups or push-ups until failure
- a sitting flexibility test
- a variant shuttle run
During the signing ceremony, Trump was surrounded by White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., golfer Bryson DeChambeau, NFL kicker Harrison Butker, Dr. Stephen Soloway, former NFL player Cody Campbell, golfer Annika Sörenstam, retired wrestler Paul "Triple H" Levesque, NFL Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor, and a small group of children which appeared to be in the age range of 7 to 12.
Source:
Oler, Bobby. (May 5, 2026). "Trump signs proclamation to restore Presidential Fitness Test for kids". News Nation. Retrieved 2026-05-09.
Trump opened his nearly hour-long ceremonial speech by saying:
Great athletes with us today, and we have some young, great athletes, some award-winning athletes, and it's an honor to have everybody. We're thrilled to have so many young athletes here at the White House, in the Oval Office on this magnificent spring day.
At the 00:48 mark of the ceremony Trump, unsolicited, made his first mention of the Iran war:
We basically wiped out their military in about two weeks.
At the 04:52 mark (unsolicited):
I thought I'd easily win the election. Which, by the way, I did. And, unfortunately, bad things happened. It was a rigged election. And I said, ah, I'll do it again. I had the ultimate poll. I did so well. And I had the ultimate poll and we won in a landslide. We won every single swing state. We won the popular vote. We won everything you can win. We won 87 percent of the counties in the United States.
At the 11:50 mark (unsolicited) Trump first said the word "Iran" (which he would say 14 more times during the ceremony):
I call it a skirmish because Iran has no chance. They never did. They know it. They express it to me when I talk to them. Then they get on television, they say how well they're doing. And they have no Navy, totally wiped out. They have no Air Force, totally wiped out. They have no anti-aircraft capability, totally wiped out, no radar. They have no leaders. The leaders are wiped out, the whole thing. And then I read the papers and they say how well they're doing. They're not doing well. That's why you have no credibility, no credibility. The -- the news, the fake news has no credibility.
At the 13:27 mark (unsolicited) Trump said the word "Iran" again, and said the phrase "nuclear weapon) (which he would say 8 more times during his speech):
And, I know it's too bad, but I had to do it, we -- we can't let Iran have a nuclear weapon. You might be too young for this. I don't know if I want -- they probably know. They -- they probably know better than most people but you can't let a bunch of lunatics have a nuclear weapon, or the world would be in trouble. The world would be in trouble.
At the 14:51 mark (unsolicited):
This deserves to President Trump. There's never been a man that deserves a Nobel Peace -- he ended eight wars, including India, Pakistan, which would have been a nuclear war, eight of them. And I called everybody in, Gary, and I said, you know what, we just broke every record and now we're going to take a hit because we have to make a journey down to Iran to take the nuclear weapon.
They would have had a nuclear weapon in -- within two weeks. Remember, we sent that beautiful B-2 bomber in and we, uh, we blew up their nuclear potential. It was obliterated for those that are not aware, to a point where it would take them weeks to dig down and we wouldn't let them dig down. We have our eyes on it all the time. But it was a very important thing. So we would have had a -- an Iran with a nuclear weapon, and maybe we wouldn't all be here right now.
I can tell you, the Middle East would have been gone, Israel would have been gone, and they would have trained their sights on Europe first and then us, because they're sick people. These are sick people. And we're not going to let lunatics have a nuclear weapon. The power of a nuclear weapon is something I don't even want to talk about. It's not going to happen. And we have beaten them badly.
They're talking -- oh, now they're reduced to little boats with a machine gun on the front of them, because they had a navy of 159 ships. Every single ship in the first week was -- right, Pete, every single ship they had is...resting underwater, right, at the bottom of the sea. They have no Navy. It's totally wiped out. Same thing with their Air Force.
At the 50:43 mark (in response to a question):
I said, because we cannot let these people have a nuclear weapon, they'll use it, we can't. I also thought oil would go up to 200, 250, maybe 300, and I knew it would be short term, but I thought it would go up. I look today, it's like at 102, and that's a very small price to pay for getting rid of a nuclear weapon from people that are really mentally deranged.
Source:
(May 5, 2026). "Remarks: Donald Trump Signs a Presidential Fitness Proclamation - May 5, 2026". Roll Call. Retrieved 2026-05-09.
More:
This ceremony was about signing a proclamation to restore the Presidential Fitness Test Award. It wasn't a planned speech, and it wasn't a campaign rally.
It was completely inappropriate for Trump to bring up the topics of Iran and nuclear weapons in front of young children, and he did it unsolicited (not in response to questions). Kids at the age of 7-12 are highly impressionable and they haven't yet developed the mental capacity to understand and put into context complex subjects like the war with Iran.
It's hard to say for sure if it was just Trump's massive, out of control ego that made him do this, or whether this time he did it on purpose to indoctrinate and "brain-wash" children.
Trump also couldn't help mentioning to his young listeners that he in fact won the 2020 election, and that it was "rigged." That's more than just indoctrination, it's outright lying and spreading falsehoods.
This isn't the first time Trump has brought up politics while speaking with young children.
On April 6, 2026, during an Easter celebration with young children, referring to President Joe Biden's use of the autopen Trump said:
He'd have an autopen follow him. He didn't sign, he was incapable of signing his name so they'd follow him around with a big machine. Do you know what it was called? An autopen and he'd have the autopen sign for him. He'd take the paper, hand it to his guys, sign it with an autopen and give it back. That's not too good, right?
Once again, Trump jumped on the opportunity to trash-talk his perceived enemies and feed his insatiable ego. To say that Biden was "incapable" of signing his name is just another Trump lie.
On December 24, 2025, while participating in NORAD Santa Claus calls, accepting calls from children across the nation, Trump said:
We won Pennsylvania — actually, three times. We won it in a landslide. So I love Pennsylvania.
Trump has an ego sickness. He has an insatiable need to not only be told, but to constantly tell himself that he is better than everyone else. Because his ego is so massive and out of control, this sickness makes him completely unfit to be president of the United States. If he can't even control what he says to young children, how can he be trusted to control what he says and does regarding decisions that affect the entire United States and the world?