President Donald Trump’s claimed height and weight got a reality check when an MS NOW host lined him up next to two NFL stars with similar measurements.
The White House claimed that the 79-year-old president weighs 224 pounds and is 6′3″ tall after his physical in April 2025. While that means the president is overweight with a BMI of 28, many believe his height was inflated and his weight lowballed.
The Weeknight host Michael Steele put it to the eyeball test Monday night, comparing a photo of the president side-by-side with two athletes of similar listed sizes: Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver DK Metcalf, 28, and Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold, 28.
“I’ve found it interesting that the president always likes to sort of place himself in this physical space that … strains credulity,” Steele said, before adding with a chuckle, “There’s a great picture of Trump side-by-side with athletes who supposedly carry the same dimensions as the president, let’s just put it that way.”
The comparison showed Metcalf, listed by the NFL at 6′4″ and 229 pounds, and Darnold, listed at 225 pounds and 6′3″, alongside a photo of Trump, whose physique appeared markedly different from both athletes’ despite the supposedly comparable measurements.
Steele said, “I’m 6’4″. Donald Trump is a lot shorter than me, just to note that.”
Meanwhile, pollster Cornell Belcher argued that questions about Trump’s physique and his deteriorating health undermine a core element of his MAGA brand.
“The real problem is that he built so much of his brand around hypermasculinity and being — and being a tough guy and so much of sort of that, that MAGA cult-like behavior is about his brand of being a strongman,” Belcher told the MS NOW panel. “But, and this is where it gets really problematic, because it begins to crumble when he’s falling asleep, when he can’t string together a sentence, when he clearly has visible signs of being 80.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Daily Beast has chronicled Trump’s accumulating health issues since his return to the White House. The oldest person to assume the presidency, Trump is frequently spotted with bruises on his hands and swollen ankles.
He has also developed a tendency to fall asleep during high-level meetings, regularly makes mental gaffes, and his repetition has caused a leading psychiatrist to question his mental fitness for office.
But the White House continues to project a rosy view of the president’s health—much like its official height and weight claims—often bragging about his vitality.
That led cardiologist Jonathan Reiner to tell The Washington Post on Monday, “There just seems to be a lack of candor from the White House.”
