--- title: Girthers: President Trump's Medical Exam Spawns Doubters description: The results of Trump's medical exam are being contested by "girthers"—a conspiracy movement doubting his official height and weight. canonical: https://time.com/5107274/president-trump-medical-exam-girther/ author: Eli Meixler article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-01-18T03:09:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-12T08:46:30.648Z og:title: President Trump's Height and Weight Doubted By 'Girthers' og:description: A conspiracy movement is questioning the president's official dimensions og:url: https://time.com/5107274/president-trump-medical-exam-girther/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe7b5779c8a7b5a9/6988f896096a9445306a1239/gettyimages-885715374.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: President Trump Returns To The White House og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump's Height and Weight Doubted By 'Girthers' twitter:description: A conspiracy movement is questioning the president's official dimensions twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe7b5779c8a7b5a9/6988f896096a9445306a1239/gettyimages-885715374.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump's Medical Exam Is Spawning a Conspiracy Movement of 'Girther' Naysayers > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=a8abef76-4dd9-4868-a674-5820574abae9&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Donald Trump Is in Good Physical and Mental Health, White House Doctor Says [Watch (HLS stream): Donald Trump Is in Good Physical and Mental Health, White House Doctor Says](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/QGu4aIld.m3u8) (2:09)  _Published 2018-01-16. Donald Trump Is in Good Physical and Mental Health, White House Doctor Says_ by [Eli Meixler](https://time.com/author/eli/) ## Eli Meixler Jan 18, 2018 3:09 AM UTC Donald Trump Is in Good Physical and Mental Health, White House Doctor Says by [Eli Meixler](https://time.com/author/eli/) ## Eli Meixler Jan 18, 2018 3:09 AM UTC President Donald Trump’s [medical exam this week](http://time.com/5104183/donald-trump-health-ronny-jackson/) should have put to rest any questions about the president’s fitness — from his [high-calorie diet](http://time.com/5061146/donald-trump-diet-coke/) to his [cognitive function](http://time.com/5090982/donald-trump-twitter-stable-genius/) — with White House physician Dr. Ronny Jackson declaring the president in [“excellent” health](http://time.com/5105096/donald-trump-physical-exam-transcript/). But the results of the checkup, which measured Trump at 6’3″ and 239 lbs., are being contested online by a conspiracy [movement of “girthers,”](http://fortune.com/2018/01/17/trumps-physical-exam-inadvertently-sparks-girther-movement/) who cast doubt on Trump’s official height and weight. The president’s [proportions](http://www.slate.com/blogs/the%5Fslatest/2016/09/15/how%5Ftall%5Fis%5Fdonald%5Ftrump%5Freally.html) have been the source of speculation before. Trump widely describes himself as [6’3″ tall](https://www.washingtonpost.com/apps/g/page/politics/letter-from-donald-trumps-doctor-on-his-latest-physical-exam/2091/?tid=a%5Finl), but his [driver’s license lists him at 6’2″](https://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/trump-drivers-license-height-232948), Politico reported in 2016\. That extra inch would define him as “overweight” instead of [“obese” according to the Body Mass Index](http://time.com/5104183/donald-trump-health-ronny-jackson/), one girther claimed. Doubters took to Twitter to express their suspicion of Trump’s dimensions. > [](https://twitter.com/chrislhayes/status/953379719843602432) > [](https://twitter.com/GershKuntzman/status/953382607496114177) Other users compared the President’s height to other public figures and [similarly proportioned athletes](https://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2018/01/16/donald-trump-height-weight-tim-tebow-mike-trout?utm%5Fcampaign=sinow&utm%5Fsource=twitter.com&utm%5Fmedium=social&xid=socialflow%5Ftwitter%5Fsi) to doubt the measurements. > [](https://twitter.com/JamesGunn/status/953455341236207617) > [](https://twitter.com/SpinDr/status/953380182299045888) > [](https://twitter.com/DennisPerkins5/status/953384478394732544) > [](https://twitter.com/nanci%5Fwissler/status/953459567546920960) ## Transcript [00:00] The president's overall health is excellent. His cardiac [00:02] performance during his physical exam was very good. [00:05] He continues to enjoy the significant long- term cardiac [00:08] and overall health benefits that come from a lifetime of [00:11] abstinence from tobacco and alcohol. We discussed [00:14] diet, exercise, and weight loss. He would benefit from [00:17] a diet that is lower in fat and carbohydrates and from [00:19] a routine excercise regimen. It for any type of cognitive [00:22] issues, Alzheimer's and all those other things and so [00:27] the fact that the president got 30 out of 30 on that [00:29] exam I think there's no indication whatsoever that he [00:32] has any cognitive issues. There was an incident [00:34] recently where the president apepared to Slur his [00:36] words while giving an address. Did you look into what [00:39] the cause of that might have been at all? I did. We [00:42] talked about that. And actually, one of my EMT [00:46] consultants was involved in that. We evaluated him. We [00:50] checked everything out. And everything was normal. [00:52] We even went so far as to do an ultra sound of his [00:54] proatile glands and a few other things. And there was [00:57] absolutely no clinical findings that would suggest I think [01:01] the reason for that was quite honestly, me being up [01:02] here right now I think I need a drink of water. I [01:07] think that I had given the President some medication. [01:10] Specifically some Sudafed on the days previous. I think [01:13] that I had inadvertently kind of dried up his secretions [01:16] a little bit more than I. I intended to and I think that to [01:18] our Deputy Secretary. What is this daily exercise for [01:19] [ UNKNOWN ] [01:23] So I would say [ UNKNOWN ] on a day- to- day basis [01:26] he doesn't have a dedicated, defined exercise [01:29] program and that That's what I'm working on, the [01:34] good part is that we can build on that pretty easily. [01:38] One of the things is, I'm getting nutrition specialist to [01:40] come up here and meet with the chefs that we have [01:42] here and their gonna go over the preparation of the [01:44] president's food. Just to make sure that we're cutting [01:47] the calories and the fats and the carbohydrates as [01:51] much as we possibly can, we're still making a good [01:53] meals for him With regards to the exercise, that's [01:56] something that myself, and potentially Mrs. Trump will [02:00] work with him upstairs. There's a gentlemen upstairs, [02:03] and we'll get that set up to his specifications, and we'll [02:07] see how that goes. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5107274/president-trump-medical-exam-girther/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5107274/president-trump-medical-exam-girther/"},"headline":"President Trump's Medical Exam Is Spawning a Conspiracy Movement of 'Girther' Naysayers","datePublished":"2018-01-18T03:09:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-12T08:46:30.648Z","description":"A conspiracy movement is trying to cast doubt on Trump's official height and weight","url":"https://time.com/5107274/president-trump-medical-exam-girther/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","Obesity","Donald Trump","Exercise & Fitness","onetime","overnight"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe7b5779c8a7b5a9/6988f896096a9445306a1239/gettyimages-885715374.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eli Meixler","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/eli/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe7b5779c8a7b5a9/6988f896096a9445306a1239/gettyimages-885715374.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Trump Returns To The White House","caption":"President Trump Returns To The White House","creditText":"Chris Kleponis—Pool/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5107274/president-trump-medical-exam-girther/","name":"President Trump's Medical Exam Is Spawning a Conspiracy Movement of 'Girther' Naysayers"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Donald Trump Is in Good Physical and Mental Health, White House Doctor Says","description":"Donald Trump Is in Good Physical and Mental Health, White House Doctor Says","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/QGu4aIld/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2018-01-16T22:39:14.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/QGu4aIld.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5107274/president-trump-medical-exam-girther/","duration":"PT2M9S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5107274/president-trump-medical-exam-girther/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```