So many things from our childhood are making a comeback: jelly sandals, little trinkets, strapless baby-doll tops from Hollister. And now, so is the Presidential Fitness Test, the sadistic assessment that forced middle- and high-school kids to do as many push-ups as possible in one minute. On Thursday, Donald Trump signed an executive order reestablishing the test and calling on schools to emphasize the importance of “military readiness” among children, according to a press release from the White House. What a blast from the past.
The test, which was conceived under the Eisenhower administration as a more military-leaning version of a Swiss fitness regimen, was later amped up by President Lyndon Johnson, who established an award for children who scored in the top 15 percent. (Johnson’s iteration, according to the New York Times, was largely a response to Cold War–era fears that the U.S. was becoming “soft.”) It was originally intended to “improve the fitness of the nation’s youth for military service,” but the most modern rendition included a one-mile run, pull-ups or push-ups, sit-ups, a shuttle run, and a sit-and-reach to test flexibility. In 2012, President Barack Obama replaced the test with an assessment called the FitnessGram that focused more on students’ holistic health rather than their testing numbers.
MAKE AMERICA FIT AGAIN! 💪
“The order will formally reestablish the Presidential Fitness Test, first introduced by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1966, creating school-based programs that reward “excellence in physical education” https://t.co/l3XlTShL2e
— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) July 31, 2025
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It’s not yet clear what Trump has in mind for his version, but he certainly announced it with lots of pomp and circumstance. He was joined by a few random figureheads as he signed the order, such as WWE chief creative officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque; Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, whose name the president appeared unable to pronounce; and Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker, who is more famous for encouraging female college graduates to be homemakers than for anything he has done on the football field. RFK Jr., naturally, was also in attendance, maybe because he plans to demonstrate the test himself in his favorite pair of workout jeans.
As one of many traumatized by the fitness test in middle school, I’d love to see a few other members of the administration give it a whirl: Trump and J.D. Vance, for example, going head-to-head in a pull-up competition, or maybe Karoline Leavitt running the mile. If they pass, maybe I’ll even go back and try it again myself.
