Trump sets up Presidential Fitness Test for another revamp after Obama retired it during presidency

President Donald Trump hosts athletes at the White House while signing an executive order to reestablish the Presidential Fitness Test in schools.

President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order reestablishing the Presidential Fitness Test and the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition for American schoolchildren.

The origins of the Presidential Fitness Test date back to the 1950s under President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s administration. Eisenhower established the President’s Council on Youth Fitness in 1956 as Americans feared their physical strength was subpar compared to that of Europeans.

President John F. Kennedy built upon that idea in 1960 when he published a column in Sports Illustrated before he took office. The title of the piece was called "The Soft American." In the piece, Kennedy lamented that there were an "an increasingly large number of young Americans who are neglecting their bodies—whose physical fitness is not what it should be—who are getting soft. And such softness on the part of individual citizens can help to strip and destroy the vitality of a nation."

CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM

President Donald Trump hands a pen to professional golfer Bryson DeChambeau after Trump signed an executive order restarting the Presidential Fitness Test in public schools as Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, from left, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Vice President JD Vance watch, Thursday, July 31, 2025, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington.  (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

"For the physical vigor of our citizens is one of America's most precious resources. If we waste and neglect this resource, if we allow it