EDITORIAL

Those mocking President should look in the mirror

President Donald Trump recently received his first medical checkup since taking office.

The “girther movement” sprung up overnight earlier this week after Donald Trump’s doctor, Ronny Jackson, told a news conference that the President is 6 feet, 3 inches tall and 239 pounds, just one pound shy of being classified as obese.

The Internet exploded with conspiracy theories about both numbers. Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn offered to give $100,000 to Mr. Trump’s favorite charity if the President would publicly step on a scale.

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The chattering class is fixated on the President’s weight, when the focus for many Americans should be their own girth.

But if the President were to fall in the “obese” category, he would  not be alone. More than 30 percent of Americans are obese. In West Virginia and Mississippi, the number in 2016 was almost 38 percent, according to the annual State of Obesity report. Ohio’s obesity rate was 31.1 percent of adults. Add in the number of Americans who are “overweight” and about 70 percent of adults in the U.S. are at an unhealthy weight, causing spikes in diabetes, blood pressure, even kidney disease. 

There continues to be an obesity epidemic among the young.

If President Trump’s weight causes more Americans to look in the mirror and make changes in their own lives, then the girther movement will have done something positive.

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