President Donald Trump used part of a meandering speech to House Republicans to beg photographers to make him look thin.
Speaking at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, the 79-year-old jumped from topic to topic, claiming Democrats are “owned by the insurance companies” and boasting that he is “highly cognizant of law enforcement.”
At one point, the notoriously image-conscious president interrupted his own speech to address photographers in the front row and demand that they take flattering pictures of him. “Make me look thin for once, you’re making me look a bit heavy,” said the president, whose doctor reported him weighing in at 224 pounds last April. “I’m not happy about it.”
Trump appeared to be paying close attention to the media while flitting between topics in his speech, pointing to what he called “the fake news.”
“Pulitzer Prize! Pulitzer Prize!” he remarked, tracking another photographer with his pointed finger. “He got one for the bullet,” he said, referring to Doug Mills of The New York Times. Mills took a famous series of photos on the day Trump was shot in Pennsylvania while campaigning in 2024.
“All talented guys, these are great guys,” he said of Mills’ colleagues. “I don’t like the people back there as much,” he said, gesturing to the back of the room.
Trump has repeatedly spoken about his physique over the years. During his first term, he famously made North Korean despot Kim Jong Un grimace with one such comment.
“Getting a good picture, everybody? So we look nice and handsome and thin, and perfect,” he asked photographers and cameramen from the Singapore government’s television channel during a historic summit in the country in June 2018.
In 2019, Gizmodo reported that Trump’s official social media channels were sharing photos of the president re-touched to make him more slender.
