Will US students be forced to run a mile, do pull-ups and sit-ups? Trump's next move drops big hint

US President Donald Trump Thursday announced he re-establishing the presidential fitness test, a way of assessing the fitness level of American students. Trump was joined by professional athletes as he signed an executive order that will expand on his council on sports, fitness and nutrition, including by reviving the Presidential Fitness Test in public schools.

“This is a wonderful tradition, and we’re bringing it back,” Trump said of the fitness test that began in 1966 but was phased out during the Obama administration. “We’re officially restoring the Presidential Fitness Test and the Presidential Fitness Award – and it’s going to be a very big thing,” Trump said in remarks from the White House.

“It was a big deal,” the president said of the competition the test fostered in schools. Members of the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition, including professional golfers Bryson DeChambeau and Annika Sorenstam, Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker, former New York Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor and former WWE wrestler Paul “Triple H” Levesque, who is the son-in-law of Education Secretary Linda McMahon, joined Trump at the signing ceremony.


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Trump brings back physical fitness test

The physical fitness test was introduced by former President Dwight Eisenhower in 1956. It required students to perform situps, pullups or pushups, a sit-and-reach test and a one-mile run until it was altered in 2012.

According to the Harvard Health blog, the aim of the test was to “assess cardiovascular fitness, upper-body and core strength, endurance, flexibility, and agility”.

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But the presidential fitness test didn't make students healthier. A 2025 report in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that from 2007 to 2023, trends had “significantly worsened” for “child mortality; chronic physical, developmental and mental health conditions; obesity; sleep health; early puberty; limitations in activity; and physical and emotional symptoms”, reports The Guardian.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt had announced the executive order was incoming earlier Wednesday and said it was part of Trump’s efforts to reward “excellence in physical education” and “MAKE AMERICA FIT AGAIN!”

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Under the tenure of Barrack Obama, the test “moved away from recognizing athletic performance to providing a barometer on student’s health.” Obama’s Presidential Youth Fitness Program continued though Trump’s first term and the Biden administration.

Trump on Wednesday also said his sports council would assist with issues pertaining to college athletics and women’s sports.

“It’s a mess, what happened. What they’re doing with college football, and the fans are upset about it,” he said, lamenting that college football athletes are being “traded around like playing cards.”