Donald Trump’s recent arrest in Atlanta has led to an interesting revelation about the former President: He’s built like a world-class athlete.
The 77-year-old Trump self-reported his height and weight at 6-foot-3, 215 pounds prior to his booking at Fulton County jail on Georgia on Thursday. That’s a dramatic improvement from the 6-foot-2, 240 pounds he claimed in April, when he was indicted in New York on allegations of falsifying business records.
By growing an inch and losing 25 pounds, Trump practically shares the same dimensions with Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson, current heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk and none other than Muhammad Ali.
In fact, Ali often weighed in around 215 throughout his career. ‘The Greatest’ was 213 when he scored a technical knockout over Cleveland Williams at Houston’s Astrodome in 1966 and a pound lighter in his next fight when he won a unanimous decision over Ernie Terrell.
By the time his rivalry with Joe Frazier began in 1971, Ali was fighting at exactly 215. However, as he got older and began focusing on absorbing body punches, Ali’s weight quietly crept above 225. In his last fight, a 1981 unanimous-decision defeat to Trevor Berbick, Ali tipped the scales at 236 – nearly as much as Trump claimed to weigh five months ago.
Trump actually has the ideal weight for a 6-foot-3 senior citizen, according to the BMI
Muhammad Ali (center, with Henry Cooper) regularly fought around 215 pounds in his career
At 6-foot-2, Lamar Jackson weighs about the same as Donald Trump, the ex-President claims
Oleksandr Usyk, who will face Daniel Dubois on Saturday, is also 6-foot-3, 215 pounds
Trump actually has the ideal weight for a 6-foot-3 senior citizen, according to the body-mass index published by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
And that shouldn’t come as a surprise. A former high school football and baseball player at New York Military Academy in the early 1960s, Trump has boasted regularly about his athletic prowess.
‘When I was 17, I loved sports,’ Trump told MTV in 2010. ‘I was always a good athlete and I played football, baseball, soccer, and I wrestled. I think the thing I liked the best was baseball.’
Trump was so good, he claims, he could have played professionally.
‘I was captain of the baseball team,’ Trump said. ‘I was supposed to be a professional baseball player. Fortunately, I decided to go into real estate instead. I played first base and I also played catcher. I was a good hitter and I just had a good time. Now I play golf.’
Shohei Ohtani (left) and Luguentz Dort (right) are about the same height and weight as Trump
Trump says he was known as a top baseball player at New York Military Academy in the 1960s
Three years later, Trump boasted about his playing days on Twitter: ‘I played football and baseball, sorry, but said to be the best bball player in N.Y. State.’
Slate’s Leander Schaerlaeckens subsequently uncovered nine box scores from Trump’s high school games, during which he went 4 for 29 at the plate.
Trump said his baseball career was derailed when he attended a tryout with ‘another young kid named Willie McCovey.’ McCovey, the late Hall of Famer and legendary Giants slugger, was born in Alabama in 1938 – eight years before Trump was born in Queens.
Other athletes who share roughly the same body dimensions with Trump include Los Angeles Angels star Shohei Ohtani, St. Louis Cardinals slugger, Paul Goldschmidt, Texas Rangers pitcher Max Scherzer, Oklahoma City Thunder forward Luguentz Dort, and rookie Houston Texans quarterback CJ Stroud.
These days, Trump limits his physical gifts to the golf course, where he’s known for his powerful drives.
The 6-foot-3 Trump is pictured alongside 6-foot-7 Hulk Hogan in 1987 in Atlantic City
Trump catches a baseball thrown by ex-Yankees pitcher Mariano Rivera at the White House
The 6-foot-1 Tiger Woods receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom from 6-foot-3 Trump
Trump holds a Marucci baseball bat during a ‘Made in America’ product showcase in 2017
Trump talks to the crowd during the Bedminster Invitational LIV Golf tournament on August 13
‘He can really strike the ball,’ PGA legend Ernie said after witnessing Trump sink a hole-in-one in 2022. ‘He makes good contact. He’s got a good swing. Like any amateur, you got to do the short game practice. I keep talking to him about his chipping. He’s a pretty good putter. Back in his day, he had to be a 4- or 5-handicap. Today, he’s probably a 10, 12.’
Trump has also played with the likes of Jack Nicklaus and Brooks Koepka, both of whom have complimented his game.
His ability as a golfer led caddies at one Westchester, New York club to liken him to one of the 20th century’s greatest athletes.
‘… the caddies got so used to seeing him kick his ball back onto the fairway they came up with a nickname for him: ‘Pele,’ Rick Reilly wrote in his 2019 book, ‘Commander in Cheat.’
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