Nicolai Haugsted
Trump’s latest rant against Obama takes a strange turn as he begins talking about lettuce.
Donald Trump and Barack Obama have spent years exchanging political criticism, but their latest disagreement has become considerably more personal.
With the midterm elections approaching, the two presidents have been taking shots at each other as they campaign for their respective parties.
Obama recently mocked Trump’s expensive White House renovations, comparing the president’s fondness for gold decorations to the interior of a Cheesecake Factory restaurant.
Trump was not particularly amused.
The 80-year-old president responded by calling his predecessor a “lousy president” and insisting that Obama was “not a smart guy.”
But during a campaign rally in Texas on Tuesday, Trump found an entirely different reason to criticize the former president.
Apparently, Barack Obama’s eating habits have also become a matter of presidential competition.
Trump takes aim at Obama’s healthy diet
Speaking to supporters in Corpus Christi, Texas, Trump turned his attention to Republican Representative Ronny Jackson, who was attending the rally.
Jackson previously served as White House physician during Trump’s first presidency and held the same position under Obama.
Trump used the opportunity to revisit a familiar story about his own health, claiming that Jackson had compared the physical condition of several American presidents.
“They ask, ‘Doctor, who is the healthiest?’ ‘Cause he presided over the lives of Barack Hussein Obama and Bush and Trump, and they asked him… ‘Who’s the healthiest of the three?’ He said, ‘Without question, the healthiest is President Donald J. Trump.’ And I loved him,” Trump told the crowd.
The president then extended the supposed comparison beyond medical examinations.
“And a much better golfer,” Trump added, continuing to attribute the remarks to Jackson.
“I am a much… that I will agree to. But no, no. But, you know, ’cause Obama — every piece of lettuce he eats has to be perfect, and I don’t — I’m not that choosy.”
The unusual criticism appeared to suggest that Obama’s attention to healthy eating was somehow less impressive than Trump’s more relaxed approach to food.
For a president whose affection for fast food is well documented, it was certainly an interesting argument.
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Trump’s favorite meals are hardly a secret
Trump has never made much effort to hide his enthusiasm for McDonald’s.
His preference for hamburgers, fries, sweets and Diet Coke has become a familiar part of his public image.
According to Jared Kushner’s 2022 memoir, Breaking History, Trump’s preferred McDonald’s order includes a Big Mac, a Filet-O-Fish, fries and a vanilla milkshake.
The president’s eating habits have even attracted criticism from members of his own administration.
During a January appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. described Trump’s diet in particularly unflattering terms.
Kennedy said the president was “pumping himself full of poison all day long.”
Despite that assessment, Trump has repeatedly portrayed himself as exceptionally healthy.
His latest comments about Obama suggest that the president also considers his dietary preferences part of the rivalry between them.
There is, however, a slightly amusing detail in Trump’s criticism of Obama’s supposedly perfect lettuce.
The Big Mac, one of Trump’s favorite meals, contains shredded iceberg lettuce.
Trump’s health claims have a complicated history
The president has previously claimed that Ronny Jackson considered him healthier than Obama.
During a campaign rally in Coralville, Iowa, in December 2023, Trump recounted another alleged conversation with the former White House physician.
“I said, ‘Who’s healthier?’ He said, ‘Sir, there’s no contest.’ I won’t tell you the answer but you know the answer, OK? It was me.”
However, Newsweek examined the claim in 2024 and found no public record of Jackson making that specific comparison.
Jackson has certainly spoken favorably about Trump’s physical condition in the past.
During a White House medical briefing in January 2018, he described the president as having “incredibly good genes.”
He also offered an unusually optimistic assessment of Trump’s potential lifespan.
“I told the president if he had a healthier diet over the last 20 years he might live to be 200,” Jackson said.
The physician characterized Trump’s overall health as “excellent.”
Those statements, however, did not establish that Trump was healthier than Obama.
Medical records offer a different perspective
Publicly released medical information provides some context for the president’s repeated comparisons.
Obama’s final presidential medical examination in 2016 recorded a body mass index of 22.8.
That figure falls within the range generally classified as a healthy weight.
Trump’s most recent physical examination, released in May, recorded a BMI of 29.7.
The figure places him near the upper boundary of the overweight category, just below the obesity threshold of 30.
BMI alone cannot determine someone’s overall health, and the figures do not establish which former or current president is healthier.
Nevertheless, they provide little support for treating Trump’s claimed victory in the presidential health competition as an established medical fact.
There is also an important distinction in Trump’s description of Jackson’s professional history.
Although Jackson worked in the White House Medical Unit during George W. Bush’s presidency, he did not serve as Bush’s personal presidential physician.
Obama appointed Jackson to that position in 2013.
Obama continues to irritate Trump
The latest remarks follow several days of increasingly personal criticism between the two political rivals.
Obama’s Cheesecake Factory comparison targeted Trump’s decorative preferences and the expensive changes he has made to the White House.
Trump subsequently defended his taste for gold interiors while attacking Obama’s intelligence and presidential record.
The exchange has now expanded to include their respective diets and golfing abilities.
Trump has long enjoyed comparing himself favorably with political opponents, particularly when discussing his physical fitness, intelligence and sporting achievements.
His latest rally remarks followed that familiar pattern, although the criticism of Obama’s lettuce preferences offered a rather unusual addition.
With both presidents campaigning ahead of the November 3 elections, their public exchanges may continue as Republicans and Democrats compete for control of Congress.
For now, Trump has made his position clear: He believes he is healthier, better at golf and considerably less demanding about the vegetables on his plate than Barack Obama.
