Remarks: Donald Trump Signs a Presidential Fitness Proclamation - May 5, 2026

Great athletes with us today, and we have some young, great athletes, some award-winning athletes, and it's an honor to have everybody. We're thrilled to have so many young athletes here at the White House, in the Oval Office on this magnificent spring day. And it is indeed a beautiful day to celebrate America's athletic traditions and champions physical fitness and all of those things that I worked so hard at on a personal basis.

I work out so much, like about one minute a day, max, if I'm lucky. [Laughter] I want to thank Secretaries Pete Hegseth, who just gave a great news conference with General Raizin Caine, and that was really good and you're doing very well, aren't you? You're doing -- they don't like playing games with us. They don't like it at all.

You'll see that as time goes by. You're going to see it. I think you've already seen it. We basically wiped out their military in about two weeks. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who's done an incredible job; Scott Turner that everybody knows; and a legend, Linda McMahon, head of education in our country, and she's doing a fantastic job.

They all are. We're also pleased to be joined by respected sports leaders and members of the president's Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition. We really have some incredible people. It's like a who's who. Bryson, how many do we have on the council total?

Oh, it's got to be upwards of 30, actually.

Yeah, a lot and all -- all top.

Yes, sir.

If they weren't really good, we don't allow them. You got to be really good like Gary Player, as an example. He won 168 tournaments over -- a very average career. You know that -- think of it, he won 168 tournaments, 18 majors, nine and nine senior. He has more championships than anybody, national championships than anybody.

And I played with him. He just -- he's very proud of it, actually, played with him on his 90th birthday. He very easily, on a tough course, from 6,800 yards, he very easily shot a 70. And it was the easiest 70. And normally, if you shoot a 70 and you're 90, you'd run around so excited. Gary's like, all right, let's have a little lunch.

He was the most unexcited human being I've ever seen, because he's been doing it all his life. He's been winning top three in history, in my opinion. I don't think it's my opinion. Just based on the record, Gary is top three, of Jack and Tiger and Gary, greatest golfers, so thanks for being here. And as you know, we have the US open champion and he won two US opens.

But that last one was unbelievable. He had a -- I think Gary's one of the greatest shots ever hit to win a US open, certainly, one of the top -- they say one of the top three. I don't know what the other two are, but he hit an unbelievable sand shot, sank a 4.5 foot putt and he won the US open, and he's been a great golfer from the day he was born, if you believe in genetics, because I do. But he won -- you know, he won the US amateur years ago and he won it quite easily.

But he's a great person and a great friend of mine, Bryson DeChambeau. And thank you, Bryson, and you're very much in charge of this whole operation sports. He's so much into physical fitness. All you have to do is take a look at him and you say, why is he even doing this? Because I think if you didn't work out at all, you'd still look almost like you do right now, but you are doing great.

And everybody respects Bryson. He's the longest hitter in golf and he's straight, and, frankly, maybe the best part of his game, Gary, is he's a great player.

Absolutely.

You played with him, right?

And an asset to the game.

And he's a great asset and he's a great person. And we have, along with the University of Florida's basketball coach, Todd Golden. Todd. Where is Todd?

Right here.

Todd. Hi, Todd.

Great to see you, sir.

And what a job. By the way, what a job you've done. I see that. I'm a little busy to watch the games, but I always see your team is right up there.

Yeah.

You're doing a fantastic job as a young guy. And American hockey hero, T.J. Oshie, who's one of the best hockey players in the world. T.J.

Mr. President.

Good to be.

Thanks for having me.

How's your golf game? The hockey -- the hockey players --Bryson was saying the hockey players seem to be the best -- of the athletes, seem to be the best golfers, you know?

The greatest game.

Yeah, it's great.

[Inaudible]

And he's a good golfer. He's a three handicap, may be better, right? That's very good.

Got to work on the puck, right, Gary?

But stick -- stick to hockey, right?

Yeah.

That's the three. He has to stick to hockey. Uh, that's great. What a -- what a career you've had too at a young age. And professional baseball pitcher Noah Syndergaard, sometimes referred to as Thor. And he looks like Thor to me. That's some -- where is he? It's very hard to miss. You look great.

Thank you, sir.

That is a man -- I wouldn't want to get into a fight with him, I can tell you. That would not be a good situation. This year, we celebrate 250th anniversary of our country and it's our nation's founding. It's a big deal. In addition, we have the World Cup and we have, which is just now starting, and we have the Olympics.

I got them both. And I was very proud of myself. I tried to say I got the 250th also, but nobody -- that didn't work out too well. But I did get -- I did get both the World Cup and I got the Olympics, and I was very proud of that. But I was very sad, actually, because I got them in my first term and I said, oh, wow, I'm not going to be able to go as president, because they were in six years, so I wouldn't be president.

I thought I'd easily win the election. Which, by the way, I did. And, unfortunately, bad things happened. It was a rigged election. And I said, ah, I'll do it again. I had the ultimate poll. I did so well. And I had the ultimate poll and we won in a landslide. We won every single swing state. We won the popular vote.

We won everything you can win. We won 87 percent of the counties in the United States. And I ended up with the Olympics, and I ended up with the World Cup. And very importantly, maybe the most important, is we have the 250th anniversary. And on June 14th, we're going to have the UFC and the biggest fight they've ever done, by far, the hardest ticket I've ever been involved with.

And they're building a 5,000-seat stadium right in front of -- right by the front door of the White House. And then they're going to have anywhere from 75,000 to 100,000 people on the park, right past the White House, with tremendous screens. And then we have Roger Penske, so that's Dana White's dream, what -- what that is. It's going to be amazing.

And then we have Roger Penske is going to have a big championship INDY around the Capitol and INDY racers. And he's -- he's been trying to get it here for 25 years. And he said, I came to Washington exactly 121 times, and I was never able to get it. I came once to see you, and we had it done in a half an hour.

And he's fantastic. He's won 20 Indianapolis 500s. Can you believe that? You know, other countries -- and I say it all the time. I gave him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, like I gave to Gary, too, because of his career. And then Roger, on his 18th, I called him I said, come on, I want to give you the president -- you won 18. Japan, Germany, all these countries, they spend billions and billions of dollars and they don't -- it's very hard for them to win.

They don't win very, very much. They spend all that money. And Roger just wins it all the time. So I gave it to him on the 18th. Since then, he's won -- that was four years ago. Since then, he's won two more. So he's going to be here with the INDY cars, and it's going to be their biggest race maybe ever and they're going to be circling the Capitol.

We have Pennsylvania Avenue closed down and it's -- I said, do you like the course? He said, I love the course. I said, pick the best course, we'll get it for you. Don't go the easy way; pick the best roads -- I don't care, it doesn't matter. And he picked a perfect -- he said, it's as good as you can get.

And, unfortunately, he picked the most important roads in the city, which is a little tougher. But we got it done for him quickly and that's going to be in August. So we have a lot of really exciting things happening. So today I signed a proclamation recognizing national youth sports and fitness, and I'll also signed the very first copy of the new revitalized Presidential Fitness Test Award, a certificate in recognition of achievement of the Gold Standard of Physical Fitness.

And this is something that Bryson DeChambeau wanted to do very badly. Bryson is amazing. I mean, he's somebody that can put on 25, 30 -- at one point, I guess he put on almost 50 pounds. You remember? He looked like a linebacker for the Pittsburgh Steelers. And he decided he didn't like himself at that weight.

It was all muscle, Gary. It was crazy. He looked like a massive football player. You wouldn't want to play him. And he said he didn't like it. He developed too much speed, is the problem that people -- he had too much speed. He wanted to bring it down a little bit, so he lost -- He can put on weight, like up and down like a yo-yo. And he doesn't take the shot, OK? He doesn't need the fat shot.

He just -- I said, do you ever take this shot? He didn't even know what the hell I was talking about. What shot? No, he can put it on. He's a scientist. He's like a scientist with his body. He's a great guy, and he's an absolute champion, so I appreciate it. But Bryson really wanted to bring it back because we are bringing it back.

It's something that's, uh, a lot of people, the wrong people probably were involved. I don't know. But this is a group of people that physical fitness is everything. Gary Player, by the way, you talk about golf, but, uh, he was always considered in the best shape of anybody. He was long ahead of the rest of the world.

Now, you see all these guys have a 28-inch waist. They walk down, it's like -- like robots, right? But Gary was always -- he was way -- he was way ahead of everybody else. From the late 1950s until 2013, grade schoolers across the country competed against each other in the presidential fitness test, but others in -- though, we had the Obama administration, wonderful, wonderful person, Barack Hussein Obama.

Have you heard of him? We had the Obama administration, which phased out this wonderful tradition of physical fitness. Thank you, Barack, very much. Great job. No, we're bringing it back. We're bringing it back. My administration is working very hard to defend America's cherished athletic traditions and pass our values of excellence and competitiveness to the next generation, so important.

We are working on historic reforms to save college sports, and we banned men from competing in women's sports. That was sort of an easy one. They say, you know, the radical left says that's an 80/20 issue. No, it's 99/1. They say 80/20. Who are the 20 percent? I've never met anybody -- nobody's ever come up. So I've been president for five years and nobody's ever come up to me and said, sir, you have to allow men to play in women's sports.

You know, I've never had one person say, it's really important that we allow women to be challenged by men in women's sports. And doesn't work, so we did that. And with the help of Secretary Kennedy, who is with us, we're striving constantly to make America healthy again. And that's what we're doing. We have unbelievable numbers coming.

Bobby will mention it. We have unbelievable numbers coming. So these next few years will be a golden age for American sports, just like it's a golden age for America. You know, we hit an all-time high stock market today, despite that we're in a little skirmish, military -- I call it a skirmish because Iran has no chance.

They never did. They know it. They express it to me when I talk to them. Then they get on television, they say how well they're doing. And they have no Navy, totally wiped out. They have no Air Force, totally wiped out. They have no anti-aircraft capability, totally wiped out, no radar. They have no leaders.

The leaders are wiped out, the whole thing. And then I read the papers and they say how well they're doing. They're not doing well. That's why you have no credibility, no credibility. The -- the news, the fake news has no credibility. But the President's Cup, it's going to be something and we're going to have that.

We're going to do a very special presentations to Gianni, who, as you know, is the commissioner. He's a fantastic person who runs the soccer. And if -- I don't know if you know this, but -- so more tickets have been sold earlier than at any World Cup they've ever had, and the numbers are more than double.

They've never seen anything like it so it's really a -- soccer, I don't know, soccer has taken off or not taken off, but the World Cup is doing numbers like they've never done. They've never done anywhere close. And we have the Patriot Games in honor of our 250th anniversary this fall. It's going to be all on television.

And with athletes like the ones that we have here, we're going to continue to win, win, win. Our country is doing great. We, uh, we're breaking records in every way. And, I know it's too bad, but I had to do it, we -- we can't let Iran have a nuclear weapon. You might be too young for this. I don't know if I want -- they probably know.

They -- they probably know better than most people but you can't let a bunch of lunatics have a nuclear weapon, or the world would be in trouble. The world would be in trouble. So we just hit records on the Dow. It was supposed to be done in five or six years. Somebody said it couldn't be possible to reach 50 on the Dow, and I reached 50 in the first year, and then I reached 7,000. And by the way, just set a new record.

The S&P just set a new record, much higher, 7,500. But they said, even harder than 50 on the Dow is getting to 7,000 on the S&P. We did that by the end of the first year, all before the end of the first year. Gary, so think of that, they said we couldn't do it in four years and we did it at the end of the first year.

And then, you ever have this -- and then I said -- I called all my people and I said, we just set every record in the book, the economy is going great. I ended eight wars. Nobody else ended ever ended a war. And the person that won the Nobel Prize, Maria, she's a good person, she said, I don't deserve this.

This deserves to President Trump. There's never been a man that deserves a Nobel Peace -- he ended eight wars, including India, Pakistan, which would have been a nuclear war, eight of them. And I called everybody in, Gary, and I said, you know what, we just broke every record and now we're going to take a hit because we have to make a journey down to Iran to take the nuclear weapon.

They would have had a nuclear weapon in -- within two weeks. Remember, we sent that beautiful B-2 bomber in and we, uh, we blew up their nuclear potential. It was obliterated for those that are not aware, to a point where it would take them weeks to dig down and we wouldn't let them dig down. We have our eyes on it all the time.

But it was a very important thing. So we would have had a -- an Iran with a nuclear weapon, and maybe we wouldn't all be here right now. I can tell you, the Middle East would have been gone, Israel would have been gone, and they would have trained their sights on Europe first and then us, because they're sick people.

These are sick people. And we're not going to let lunatics have a nuclear weapon. The power of a nuclear weapon is something I don't even want to talk about. It's not going to happen. And we have beaten them badly. They're talking -- oh, now they're reduced to little boats with a machine gun on the front of them, because they had a navy of 159 ships.

Every single ship in the first week was -- right, Pete, every single ship they had is --

It's gone, sir.

-- resting underwater, right, at the bottom of the sea. They have no Navy. It's totally wiped out. Same thing with their Air Force. So we're doing well, but it's all about, you know, having a great country. And one of the things I think that when they talk about physical fitness, one of the things I noticed about friends of mine, all of the people, all the great athletes here, is their mind is better than people that aren't fit.

It's -- because I think a mind -- you know, once you once you hit a ball well, or you do whatever it is that -- you run well or play hockey as great as you play it, but once you -- I mean, you obviously have to have a certain physicality. You can't have somebody with a great mind and zero -- zero athletic talent, right?

But when you get up to that league, it's all about the mind. The mind is so important. And these people express it, I think, better than anybody. So with that, I'd like to ask somebody that's done really an incredible job, he has got some group of people that love him, some big group of people. It was a -- it was a big day when he endorsed me for president, very unusual because I happen to be a Republican.

I would say that Republicans were not too big in the Kennedy family, but they're big now because he's the biggest -- he's the biggest in the group. And everybody respects him a lot. He's doing a fantastic job. So, Bobby, would you say a few words, please?

Yeah. Thank you, Mr. President. One of my -- almost immediately after my uncle was elected in 1960, in '61 -- '60, he came across some federal data that showed that five percent of American kids were obese, and that was more than double the European number. and he became very concerned that Americans were becoming soft.

And he published an article before his inauguration called The Soft American, in which he said that there's a national security issue. It threatens our -- our economy. We need a vigorous population that is in good shape spiritually, morally, physically, if we're going to continue to exercise leadership around the world.

And he launched the physical fitness test, which became a milestone for my generation, for several generations after me. It was an enduring rite of passage for us that everybody in my generation remembers. It was a benchmark also because we did pull-ups, sit-ups, shuttle runs and a number of other events, and it was a benchmark for measuring national physical fitness.

Um, around that time, my uncle came across correspondence between Teddy Roosevelt and the head of his -- the commandant of his Marine Corps. And Teddy Roosevelt asked him, what are the metrics, what are the physical requirements for a Marine? And Roosevelt -- or the commandant wrote him back saying that a Marine had to walk 50 miles in a single day a with a 30-pound pack.

My uncle wrote a letter to his commandant and said, can today's Marines do the same thing? The following day, he had a cabinet meeting, was on a Friday, and he had private cabinet meetings, unlike the ones that we have to go through here. Listen, my uncle was -- I'll just say this. My uncle was proud. He was the first president that had televised press conferences, and he was very proud.

He did more press conferences than any president in history. He did 64 in his 1,000 days in office. This president does that every two months. He does a press conference every day, or cabinet meetings, for better or for worse, are also televised. Um, but it's the most transparent administration we've ever seen, the most successful administration in history.

And he went into that cabinet meeting, that private cabinet meeting that morning and he said to the cabinet, one of you has to do a 50-mile hike this weekend, to show the American people that were in shape. And he -- his cabinet could have done it. We have a bunch of thoroughbreds in this cabinet, he and Scott and Sean Duffy and Linda and Tulsi and Doug Burgum and Jamieson and all the rest.

There's a lot of people who could probably do a 50-mile hike. What about me? You didn't mention my name. I could --

This guy walks nine miles a day and a golf course every weekend, so he could do it in a breeze.

I could do it. When I'm not using a cart. Go ahead.

Um, my father was the only one who could do it. And he went into the Justice Department that night, and he had a bunch of guys in the Justice Department who were former Marines, who had gone to Harvard on the G.I. Bill and played on the same football team. And he hired them all when he came to the Justice Department.

And he said, you guys are going on a 50-mile hike with me tomorrow and they got up at 4:00 am and they started on this, uh, you know, uh, canal towpath, which was frozen. It was the middle of winter. And they were going to walk to Camp David. One by one, they each dropped out. My father was the only one who made it. He -- the last guy to drop out was his best friend.

His name was Dave Hackett. And Dave Hackett's legs had swollen up and he said, I got to quit. And my father said, you're lucky your brother's not the president of the United States because the press was following and there was no way that my father could quit. I was at Camp David that night and watched him come in and his feet were bleeding.

They were covered with blisters. But it was part of the message that President Kennedy wanted to send the American people, if we were going to maintain our national authority, our national -- our international leadership, our moral authority as a nation, that we had to pay attention to our -- our physical condition.

The physical fitness test was a critical part of that. And I think it's very unfortunate that President Obama and President Biden abandoned it. They said, competition is not good for kids, which is not true. But if we're going to be competitive internationally, we need to be competitive with each other. We need to teach people how to win and how to lose and how to process victory and defeat.

And, um, today, they -- since that time, the presidency has presided over the worst public health crisis in history. We're now the sickest nation in the world. We've gone from five percent of our kids being obese to 20 percent. 70 percent of adults are obese or overweight, and 77 percent of our children cannot qualify for military service.

And that should be an eye-opener for all of us. And I'm so grateful to President Trump for his leadership and his vision of reinstituting the physical fitness test and challenging Americans to compete with each other in a friendly, congenial way and to help each other get in shape so that we can prepare for a great future that this administration is going to provide for this country.

That was -- that was great. [Inaudible] Bobby -- Bobby, did you ever see a picture of Bobby working out? It's like, you guys -- I said, you got to be kidding me? He's in great shape. I didn't know that about your father. That's very impressive. Did he work out a lot, Bobby? He was a great guy.

He was an athlete, and he was always in good shape and he played sports every weekend.

Was he -- your uncle was a great athlete, too. Was he a very good athlete?

My father was the only one of the brothers that lettered in football.

Oh.

Jack was a swimmer, which allowed him to save his crewmates when his ship went down in the -- in the -- uh, off the Solomon Islands, so he was able to swim, or drag one of his shipmates to shore because he'd been on the swim team.

Two great stories. It's very interesting. Bobby, that was very good. It's quite interesting. Everybody was listening. You know, usually people are sort of wandering off as people speak, but not when Bryson speaks or [Inaudible] speaks. Go ahead, why don't you start it?

Yeah, Secretary Kennedy, thank you for those inspiring words from your uncle and thank you to the president of United States for helping reestablish this presidential fitness test it's been something that we've been looking forward to doing for a long time, um, since 2013. I remember going through the presidential fitness test as a kid and getting that award, and it was quite an honor.

So being up here and a part of that is quite instrumental and going to be amazing for our nation's future. Um, reestablishing the gold presidential -- the golden standard of the presidential fitness test has been a huge deal for me, is that these kids now are going to have a healthy future. That's really an important thing for -- for us to note here, is that, you know, we want to make sure our kids have the best opportunity to succeed in life, and not only from their mind, but their health and their wellbeing.

Their -- their physical fitness is a huge priority to helping them become better human beings in general for our nation. Um, and so what's quite, honestly, cool, is, uh, Secretary Hegseth here has allowed us to be involved in over 160 schools, military bases with DoWEA and institutionalizing this presidential fitness test in those schools.

So I have to say, thank you so much for helping establish that and, hopefully here soon, we can do that across the nation, of which we believe has tremendous -- will have a tremendous effect on -- on these kids and their future. So I just wanted to say thank you to the president. Thank you to the cabinet members for everything you've done.

And we're going to go out there and have a great day on the field and give these kids some -- some fun things to go and play with, whether it's football, soccer, some -- doing some pull-ups. Can you guys do pull ups? No? We'll help you. We'll help you. But that's a part of the presidential fitness test, is aspiring to help these kids become a better version of themselves and that's what I couldn't be more excited to be a part of. I want to say thank you to the athletes that are here today and to Gary Player.

He's a -- he's always been an inspiration to me. And albeit, I'll never get to your record, I thank you for giving me aspirations to hopefully get one eighth of what you have, so thank you. And lastly, I just want to say the kids, most important thing you can do is always, get one percent better a day. That's the most important thing I can give you guys, try to be a better version of yourself every day, because one day you could be up here as well.

You could be up here as well. So thank you, Mr. President.

Thank you. Thank you, Bryson.

Thank you everybody for being here and I can't wait to see what we do out there today.

[Inaudible] thank you, Bryson. And this is really for Bryson because he's worked so hard on this. He's -- he's really -- he really put it together. He's got the best athletes in the world. I think it's actually 41 or 42. It's -- and all top -- top people, all big names, top people, and they all want to do it. And, uh, Bryson, I was given a little idea by Bobby.

He mentioned Camp David, and it's a special place, and I think we should have our next meeting, the full meeting at Camp David.

Sounds great.

So we'll -- it's like a very special place.

Amazing.

So we'll do that. Uh, I'd love to have Gary say a few words. He's won 168 tournaments. Think of it. Uh, that means he won every weekend. I say, well, when did you not win? It's a record, I think, that will never be broken. And he won 18 majors, nine senior and nine regular and many other things. And he is a very special guy.

And, you know, if you think about the power of positive thinking, I don't know if Gary has the time, but he is the youngest winner of the British Open, what they call now the Open Championship and he won it when he was 23, I think, Gary, right?

Yeah.

23. If you -- if you want, you could tell that story, because these are all people that love sports and they love golf. But the way you ask to -- you'd like to practice, my name is Gary Player. I'm from South Africa. You're not giving me the time to practice. I must practice on this course. And the people thought, who is this?

You don't understand, I'm going to win this tournament. They never heard of him. He came out of South Africa. He's winning everything. He won the South African Open like 14 times or something. It's incredible but if you want to tell that story, I think it's a fabulous story. But as a man with a powerful -- it's really the power of positive thinking.

Go ahead, Gary.

Well, Mr. President, first of all, thank you very much for having us and hosting this today. I've been around almost every president for the last 65 years, and I've never seen a president who loves this country as much -- they all did, and they all did great works but I've never seen a president who loves the country as much as you do. And I say thank you because I've traveled more miles than any human being before, without being repetitive, and I've never seen a country like this.

The freedom that exists, which is so important to all of us, and no sport can change the world, it can give people a chance that don't have any hope. It can give them hope, as we've seen. Many people with little education have become world champions. Only in America have you got that opportunity. And the other thing is, to Mr. Kennedy, who I have absolute utmost respect for, you know, my great dream now -- I'm finished with tournament golf.

My great dream is for the youth of America, the youth of a nation are the trustees of posterity. These are the people that are going to be the future champions. And when I talk, I always talk about the importance of fitness, it's so important. Please, can we bring it back in the schools? And as Senator Kennedy has aptly said, to eat properly, this is so important, what you put in your body.

And the big thing that I wish, and I pray every day, and wherever I talk, and I do a lot of talking, I say to the young people, just love this country because you don't realize what's going on around the world. Even the students of the great universities of America really don't understand what's happening around the world today.

There is a silent war taking place against America today, and what we've got to do is make these kids realize that freedom and exercise and education -- start reading some books. Yes, keep your phone, but also read some good books and listen to what Mr. Kennedy has said. What you put in your body is so important.

What a wonderful job he's done and all your cabinet members of which I say thank you for maintaining this great word, this cherished word, freedom.

Thank you very much, Gary. And Gary is way ahead of his time, always. And how many Masters did you play in, Gary? It's a record, I think.

52

52. Think of it, 52. And most of them you had to qualify after you won it -- how many times did you win in?

Three.

Three. So, when you win the three you get to play a little bit. But most of the time he had to qualify. But 52 Masters, it's amazing, and did well in every single one of them. Pete, could I ask you to say a few words?

Sure, yes, sir.

You could maybe speak a little bit about a subject that they want to hear about also, if you want. But just say a few words if you would.

Absolutely, sir, Well, fitness standards, competition, that's what we're all about at the War Department. So, bringing those things to education is something I remember as a kid. I mean, the Presidential Physical Fitness Award was the pinnacle event at Forest Lake Elementary School every year and I wanted to be the best.

And I wasn't, but I worked my tail off every year to try to get there. Pull ups, push-ups -- I couldn't do the V sit and reach, I could never beat that one. But I remember it because it was something my country clearly elevated as important. We should be in shape, we should compete and there's winners and there's losers.

That we need to infuse into our young people. And obviously, it takes young people to run a military. And as the secretary pointed out, almost three-fourths of American young people do not qualify for military service, and a lot of that has to do with their physical fitness. So, we're proud at the War Department to put this first into Department of War education activity.

Our schools, 161 of them across 30 installations, it's going to be mandatory for the young kids of those service members who use those schools. And we hope that's a pilot for all of American education. We hope the rest of America follows. We need young, strong, healthy Americans, whether you serve in the military or any other aspect of your life.

And I think this Presidential Fitness Test, Mr. President, is a great -- a perfect thing to restore that sets those standards high for young people and something for them to achieve. The idea that competition is bad is the beginning of decline of a nation. Competition is critical to who we are and ensuring America stays on top.

And speaking of staying on top, Mr. President, we are, as we talked about this morning, Project Freedom is ongoing. We're ensuring that we have control of that strait, which we do, and, ultimately, Iran has a choice to make. And they know we're in a strong position; we hope they make a wise choice. And nobody better to make that deal, Mr. President, than you.

Thank you very much. Thanks for doing a great job. A man who's in very -- you talk about athletes, this is a very serious athlete, happens to be in charge of a little thing called housing. Do you want to say a few words?

Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. President. And thank you to all the great athletes and ambassadors that are here, and to the kids that are here. You know, that word competition, I made a living competing and being in the top physical fitness that I could be in playing in the National Football League. And one thing I want to remind the kids, and really our country, is competition brings out the best in us, be it in sport, be it in business, be it in education.

And you always want to be the best you can be, as Bryson said, every single day getting better. And I'm grateful that I had an opportunity to play in the National Football League, but it taught me how to be a good teammate. It taught me how to be humble in victory and to be steadfast in defeat, as all these great athletes know.

And Mr. President, thank you for just your leadership in our country, but also for this important issue of having physically healthy children and a physically healthy nation. And Bobby, thank you for reminding us of your uncle and your father, of how important it is for us to be -- to look at the man holistically, spiritually, morally, physically, mentally.

And I think America historically has been the leader in all of those areas, but we are at a critical function in our nation. And so, I would encourage everyone -- this transcends politics. Physical fitness is good for every man and woman and child in the United States of America. So, Mr. President, I'm committed to this.

I've seen the benefits of it in my own personal life, my family. And my cabinet colleagues are 100 percent behind this. And so, I would encourage all the young people of America, parents, teachers, educators to take inventory and hear what these leaders are saying about the national security of our country and make sure that we're encouraging our young people to get out.

Get your hands dirty, get your knees scarred, get on the monkey bars, start running and jumping and playing together, because if you're a good teammate, the stronger team we are, the stronger country are. So, thank you, sir.

Well, thank you. I have to just say we have a star named Linda McMahon, and she's made a tremendous amount of money on sports and sport -- they are great athletes in my opinion, WWE, her great husband and what they built is incredible. They sold it for a fortune, billions and billions of dollars. You made more than Bryson and Gary both if you add it up. Would you say a few words?

And she's one of our great stars. She is a phenomenal person. Go ahead.

Well, that intro is a hard act to follow. But I think what we really -- we've talked a lot about fitness and I think that's incredibly important because that's what all this is about. But you know, the Greeks had an axiom, sound mind and a sound body. So, as Secretary of Education, clearly, I want all of our schools to be able to adopt these programs.

We don't control curriculum from the Department of Education. But I sincerely hope the emphasis that is being refocused on kids and being fit and being able to compete, that's what you said, Pete. All of us are saying the same thing. But let's not forget it's about also a sound mind and a sound body. In order to have a sound mind you do have to eat well, you do have to exercise, you do have to train, and you do have to be fit to do that.

And if we all are, we are the best of who we can be. So, I encourage all of you to enjoy playing and competing and being good sports while you're doing. But don't forget, you're studying all of your academics because it is all part of the total package.

Thank you, Linda. Great job, appreciate it. So, we have a couple of other guys, if you guys wanted to say anything, or we'll just take some questions and, if you'd like, you could ask the big guy how fast did he throw it? He threw it very fast. He was very scary, ask Gary. And you want to say something?

I guess I'll just reiterate the thanks, Mr. President. Thank you to the cabinet members for this opportunity to be here. Thank you, Bryson, to allow me to be in this elite company of people. It's a pleasure to meet all you guys and --

Let me look at you. You're the embodiment of the physical fitness test. So, we've got to get you on the pull bars.

He is seriously a good physical specimen. And coach, you've done great in Florida? Thank you very much.

No. Incredible honor to be here. This is something that I'm passionate about, and I think it's imperative that we're doing this for our youth right now. Through experience -- my wife and I have two young kids, nine and seven. They're very active, very athletic, but I can see some of their classmates and some of their teammates staring at screens all day.

And again, as I said, it's really important that we do this now. And not only will -- I think this will improve the overall physical health of our young people, but I think it will also help the mental health of our young people as well.

And just in case you don't know, he is a coach who just came to a team and just took it right from the beginning, Gary. Just an unbelievable job you've done.

Thank you very much.

You're a very rich guy. They'll pay him anything. I want to represent him. He comes in and he just pulled this away. Congratulations. Who's going to win in hockey?

That's a tough one. Colorado is a favorite; I like Minnesota though.

All right, we're going to watch, OK? We're going to watch. Great job. Great job you've done. Thank you. And we're going to go outside. Did you want to ask a few questions of any of the people here? Please.

Can I ask you about Iran, Mr. President?

Yes.

They've fired at US ships several times in the last 24 hours. What do they need to do to violate the ceasefire?

Well, you'll find out, because I'll let you know. They know what to do -- and they know what to do and they know what not to do more importantly, actually. And, you know, they fired them in little boats with peashooters. You know what a peashooter is? A little boat with a little -- you know why? Because they don't have any boats anymore.

Their Navy is comprised of -- they call them little boats. And they're fast, yeah, and they're so fast that they had eight of them, and they're all gone. And they're fast, but they're not fast like a missile; a missile is slightly faster and they're all gone. So, they're looking around for little boats to try and compete with our great Navy.

We have a Navy that's unbelievable. You know, where you set up a blockade, as you know very well, not one ship -- a couple tried and they got their engine shot out. You remember, I think it was one of the -- it was a great display. A ship wanted to go through and break the blockade. They were warned not to and then they were warned again by a young Annapolis captain of the ship with a great look, Central Casting.

These people are Central Casting, I'll tell you. And he said, don't do it. Then he said, evacuate your engine room with this unbelievable loudspeaker that goes over water. He said, you have 10 seconds. And then from four miles with one bullet, it went right into the engine and, Gary, the ship stopped very quickly.

They hit the engine with one shot -- it wasn't a missile; they don't want to waste a missile on it, it's too easy. And we had another one at 2,000 -- one of the biggest ships in the world. They were warned and they said, go back now, go back right now, you will be shot at within 10 seconds. Yes, yes, I am going back to Iran.

I am going back and that was the end of that, right, and he went. It took them 10 miles to -- the ship was so big. But they respect us. They didn't used to respect us, but they respect us more than we've ever been respected. Our country now is the hottest country anywhere in the world. We had a country that was dead when we had that group of people that ran this country with their open borders, letting anybody come in from the Congo, from countries all over the world, they came in from prisons and mental institutions.

We had a country that would have been a dead -- if they won the election this country would have been a dead country. Now we have the hottest country anywhere in the world. Go ahead.

Thank you, Mr. President. You said recently that if Iranians were armed, they could take over their regime. Do you plan to arm them soon?

Well, I don't want to say that, but yeah. I mean, people say why aren't they protesting? They want to protest, but they don't have any guns. So, you can have 200,000 people protesting and have five or six sick people with guns, and when they start shooting them right between the eyes and you see a guy fall and another one fall and you have no guns, very few people would be able to stand there and do it. I mean, I understand it. I tell them not to. Don't forget, they killed 42,000 people last month, 42,000 unarmed protesters.

They have no guns, so they had a 250,000 people crowd and they had snipers, they had like four or five snipers in buildings up high. And you're standing there and all of a sudden the guy on your left goes down, then somebody -- that's what happened with the woman protest. They had 200,000 women protesting a year ago, and everyone thought that was the end of Iran.

And then all of a sudden, a woman dropped dead with a bullet right there, always right there. Then another woman dropped, and then the word started to spread and then there was panic and then they ran and, you know. I don't want that to happen. We don't need that. We don't need it. But the only reason they're not -- they want to protest so badly, but they don't have weapons.

Yeah.

Thank you, Mr. President. Next week, you have a very important meeting with President Xi in Beijing. Secretary Bessent has said that a top priority on the agenda will be Iran. What do you hope to achieve with President Xi as it relates to Iran?

Well, I have a very good relationship with President Xi. I find him to be a tremendous guy and we get along well. And you see how we do; we're doing a lot of business with China and making a lot of money. We're making a lot of money; it's different than it used to be. But I'll be talking about it, that'll be one subject.

But he's been very nice about this. You know, in all fairness, he gets like 60 percent of his oil from Hormuz and he's been -- I think he's been very respectful. We haven't been challenged by China, they don't challenge us and he wouldn't do that. I don't think he'd do that because of me. But I think he's been very respectful and we've offered, if he wants to send the ships to the United States.

I think one of the big things that's happened is I made a statement, send your ships to Texas, it's not that much further. Send your ships to Louisiana. Send your ships to Alaska. Alaska is actually very close to a lot of the Asian countries; people don't realize it. Japan is back and forth. It's like, it doesn't seem it, but it's a very short route, two days shorter than almost any other route.

We're making tremendous, big deals with South Korea and with Japan. But I said, send your ships. All of a sudden, I don't know if you saw the graph today, and this is Space Force, which I created. Space Force has -- they just sent out some photos of the ships that are lined up all the way down the ocean like it's a highway.

It looks like the Long Island Expressway for ships, and they're all heading to Texas and Louisiana. We've made up this -- and that's why -- when I decided that I have to do this for the good of the world, not just the United States. In a way, we would have been in less trouble than a lot of other places.

Certainly, the Middle East would have been blown up; there wouldn't be a Middle East anymore. They would have controlled -- they would have taken over the Middle East. Now they're trying to survive, and they won't be successful unless they make a deal. Oh, if they don't make a deal, they won't be successful.

It'll go very quickly and methodically, believe me, it'll be very easy. But we have so many alternatives, it's amazing. And nobody knew this because, as an example, Japan got 90 percent of their oil, of most of their energy, but most of their oil from the Hormuz Strait. South Korea got 43 percent of it. By the way, their ship was shot at; they were not in the cavalcade of ships.

They decided to go it alone, and their ship got the hell knocked out of it yesterday. But they didn't shoot the ships that were guarded by us, I'll tell you that. We knocked down a lot of missiles. So, what happens is that we have a situation where we have total control. As you know, the blockade has been amazing.

It's like a piece of steel; nobody's going to challenge the blockade, and I think it's working out very well. We're going to see. I can say this -- Iran wants to make a deal. What I don't like about Iran is they'll talk to me with such great respect, and then they'll go on television, they'll say, we did not speak to the president.

We did not -- and I just spoke to them. We did not speak to the president. So, they play games. But let me just tell you, they want to make a deal. And who wouldn't when your military is totally gone? We could do anything we want to them. Who wouldn't? Please.

On the filibuster, Mr. President, you posted a lot about wanting to eliminate the filibuster. It hasn't happened. Are you disappointed in Leader Thune?

Yeah, no. I'm disappointed. I like John a lot but he has a couple of Republicans that are foolish people. A couple of them I like, a couple of them I can't stand actually, if you want to know the truth. Although I do -- I am at, according to CNN, 100 percent approval within the Republican Party. That's almost -- that's better than your record.

I'm at 100 percent approval. Did you see the CNN poll? Nobody talks about it. CNN -- I think the people that did that poll probably got fired. But within the Republican Party and MAGA, which is basically 100 percent of the party, I think, but 100 percent. No, I think that you're going to see some very interesting things.

The filibuster, if you had it, we should have the SAVE America Act, we should have voter identification, voter ID, we should have proof of citizenship, we should have mail in voting for the military and people that need it, but not for everybody. Because any time you have mail in voting, they're going to cheat and they cheat like dogs and they have to cheat.

You know, in all fairness to the Democrats, when you have men in women's sports, when you have open borders, when you have transgender mutilation -- don't listen to this, kids -- of your children, of your children, transgender mutilation of your children for everyone. When you have policies like that, you have to cheat.

It's the only way they can win. And we shouldn't allow them to cheat. And we should terminate the filibuster because, if they get the chance, they'll do it in the first hour back.

Mr. President, thank you. Iran is seeing 50 percent inflation; they've moved money from their sovereign wealth --

Their economy is crashing.

Would you allow their financial system then to fail?

Well, I guess so, because we're making it fail, right?

Is that what it takes?

I hope it fails.

Is that what it takes?

You know why? Because I want to win. If it fails -- well, it's -- no it takes getting pounded on by the military, I think more. But in addition to that, their -- it is failing. You know, we have sanctions on them, tremendous sanctions. Scott Bessent has done a great job. We have sanctions that nobody's ever seen before.

No, they're failing and their currency is worthless, their inflation is probably 150 percent -- the real number is 150 percent. They aren't paying their soldiers. They can't pay their soldiers; the money is worthless. No, they should do the smart thing. They should do the smart thing because we don't want to go in and kill people, we really don't. I don't want to. I don't want to, it's too tough.

Great people, I know the people. I have so many Iranian friends from New York and from other places over the years. The great people, I don't want to kill those people.

[Crosstalk]

Gas prices in the United States are --

[Crosstalk]

The shooting incident yesterday -- is it possible that you can talk about that?

[Inaudible] finish it.

Gas prices in the United States are $1.48 a gallon? You said they would come back down.

They'll drop lower than they were before?

Will Project Freedom escorting those ships make that happen?

Well, it will, because -- so, people don't realize some of these tankers hold 2 million barrels. One of them holds 4 million, I think it's the largest one in the world. That sucker is big. I've never seen anything like it, a ship that's bigger than aircraft carriers. And, yeah, it has a big impact, it's so much.

You know, there are like 400 ships in there. 400. That in itself -- now, the best is when it ends and just neutralizes. But what's happening is people are learning to buy oil from the United States. I mean, they're making the trip and they're safer, probably it's a better product, too, by the way. But they have -- they're learning to buy, they're changing their habits.

So, when I did this, I thought the market would go down 25 percent and I thought that was a great deal if it did. If it went down 25 percent, I was satisfied. I said, because we cannot let these people have a nuclear weapon, they'll use it, we can't. I also thought oil would go up to 200, 250, maybe 300, and I knew it would be short term, but I thought it would go up. I look today, it's like at 102, and that's a very small price to pay for getting rid of a nuclear weapon from people that are really mentally deranged.

Yeah.

Mr. President, just on policy --

The world is lucky. By the way, other presidents should have done this. 47 years they've been toying with these stupid people. In many cases, stupid people. This should have been done by Obama. He went the other way. He was giving them cash. He sent planeloads -- a Boeing 757, took the seats out and put green cash, $1.7 billion, in the plane.

Every bank in Virginia, DC and Maryland was stripped of their cash. They took out all the cash from the banks, they put it into a plane, a Boeing 757, packed with cash, and they flew it to Iran. And they let these guys just -- I don't know what the hell they did with it, but they took it and then gave them billions and billions of dollars and bribed them basically to be friends.

And after giving them tens of billions of dollars, they screwed Obama, OK? That's not the way we play. No, we do it the old-fashioned way. And they should wave -- they're very proud, maybe you won't see a white flag, but essentially that's already what they are. They need -- they should wave the white flag, the white flag of surrender.

In hockey, they say uncle, right? When are they going to when are they going to cry uncle? But -- and they have another expression -- if this were a fight, they would stop it. But we have to go out and we have to do it and it's very sad -- it's very sad to see, even shooting those boats. They've got three or four guys.

They got a little machine gun in front. They're shooting at one of our ships that's meant for it. It bounces, they don't even know they're being shot at. And then they take it out with an Apache helicopter in about two seconds. They go Apache, Apache, ship, northwest 10 degrees, turns around -- boom! I don't like that.

You know, you lose people, all these people, it's so unnecessary -- it's so unnecessary. One thing we have, we have the greatest military in the world. I built it because I built it in my first term. I didn't think I'd be using it at least so much in my second term. But we have the greatest military, the best equipment in the world.

We had 111 missiles shot at one of our assets, one of the aircraft carriers, a week and a half ago, two weeks ago. Think of this, 111 sophisticated missiles shot at one of our aircraft carriers. And every single one of those missiles was shot down with no problem whatsoever. If you would have said that 10 years ago, five years ago, it would have been an impossibility.

You would have had to take those shots. Every single missile was laying in the water, far away -- I mean, not even, they weren't even upset. And they're the coolest people, if you ever see them, you know, Pete, when they do the missile, when they do -- right? They say missile coming, missile coming and these guys go, it's like, almost like, huh?

You know, they're very smart. These are extremely smart people. They go to very good schools. But they shut down -- who would think that, Gary? They're like a needle in a haystack. 111 missiles shot, 111 missiles were knocked down into the water, didn't even get close to the aircraft carrier. No, there's -- nobody has a military like us. OK, a couple more, and then I want to go out and watch these great athletes.

I'm not talking about him and him and him, I'm talking about these kids. Because I think you're going to be far better as an athlete than anybody behind you, OK, do you agree? I think you're going to be a better athlete. What sport do you play?

I play football.

Oh.

There you go.

Do you think you're going to be better than him? You'll be faster. You're going to be so much faster than him, he's going to be like lightning. He was known for his speed, by the way. I don't know, I think pretty good. What sport do you play?

I don't play a sport because my mom didn't sign me up, but I'm trying to play gymnastics.

Gymnastics? That's a good sport. What do you play?

I do dance, but I also do volleyball.

Oh, nice. Nice and tall to be a volleyball player. What about you? Look at this guy, he's a big guy.

Me? I'm doing football right now and next year I'm going to be trying to do powerlifting.

Oh, wow.

That's awesome.

And you'll never compete against women in powerlifting? Did you see that? They had a man powerlifter and he decided to go the opposite direction. He took a record that stood for 18 years, he beat it by 119 pounds, OK? They put the little quarter of an ounce, quarter of an ounce, 18 years it stood. This guy came -- he was a failed powerlifter, but he went on the other side and he decided that he wanted to go into women's sports.

And he broke the record by 118 pounds. Think that's fair? I don't think we'll have to worry about you. You're going to do good. Are you a strong person?

Yes, sir.

Good. Do you think you can take me in a fight? [Laughter] That would be embarrassing, wouldn't it? How about you? What sport do you play?

I play volleyball, and in the summer I'm trying to get into soccer.

Wow, wow. And with your height, do you smash the ball, the volleyball. Do you get up high, can you jump high?

Not very.

Soccer might be better. I don't want to -- I'm just looking, I think she'd be a great soccer player. That's good. Good luck, OK? What about you?

Hockey and golf.

Well, and you know that guy?

Yes.

You know that guy. You think you could be as good as him someday? Not easy -- won't be. Better. And you play golf.

This young man today, of all the young men I've met, he had the best manners possible. He was a smiler. I said, how are you. He looked me in the eye and said, fine, thank you, sir, how are you? Not just good, it's tremendous.

Are you a good golfer?

Yes.

So, what's your handicap? Do you have a handicap?

15

So, this man is 90 years old, do you think he could beat him? I'm betting on Gary.

I'm betting you will, you will, you will.

Hey, you know what else? And he doesn't choke. That's a big thing. You know, a lot of guys can play, but the flag goes up and bad things, bad things happen. And I think being in good shape helps you in that respect, too, Gary.

You see, if it wasn't a cherished table, this is very historic, I could get on this table and do 50 push-ups like that. Most people can't do that even when they're going in the army, right? So, you've got to keep in shape.

Yes, sir.

And you tell everybody how you love this country, OK? Good.

Good way to end. So, we're going to go out, we're going to say hello to the athletes. We have young and great athletes. We also have some big superstars out there waiting for us. And thank you very much. And Bryson, thank you very much. You really took this and brought it to a level. It's true, Biden and President Obama decided that it wasn't important, and they're so wrong.

Thank you very much, everybody.