San Francisco: In a practice that may seem peculiar to those outside the United States, presidents regularly undergo medical examinations and the results are made public.
Trump's first periodic examination, conducted this week by Dr Ronny Jackson, a rear admiral in the Navy and the White House physician, came back with a relatively clean bill of health. His cholesterol is too high but he has excellent cardiac health, a perfect cognitive score and great genes.
It was welcome news for the President who has weathered several stories recently about his increasingly erratic behaviour and questionable diet of McDonald's cheeseburgers.
But conspiracy theorists were quick to jump on one result: his height.
The doctor's report put Trump's height at 6 feet 3 inches tall (1.9 metres) and his weight at 239 pounds (108 kilograms).
However, a New York driver's licence issued to Trump in 2012 recorded his height as 6 feet 2 inches (1.88 metres), meaning the President has grown two centimetres in five years, something highly unusual for a 71-year-old man.
That extra inch conveniently put Trump's body mass index at 29.9, just below the 30.0 threshold for someone to be described as officially obese. Instead, he is overweight.
Mimicking the "birther" conspiracy that Trump perpetuated - which questioned whether former president Barack Obama was born outside the US thereby making him ineligible for office - the "girther" conspiracy quickly took hold.
Has anyone coined "girther" for those who belive the president weighs more than his doctor reports???? Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) January 16, 2018
For the record, @realDonaldTrump said he was 74 inches in 2012. Now his doctor says he's 75 inches. And that one inch makes is BMI "overweight" not "obese." I'm a #girther because old men don't GROW an inch! pic.twitter.com/ehNxF9PjPL??? Gersh Kuntzman (@GershKuntzman) January 16, 2018
Several observers lined up photos of Trump next to other leaders like Obama, whose height is listed as 6 feet 1 inch. Others juxtaposed photos of toned and trim athletes who supposedly share the same height and weight as Trump - perhaps an unfair comparison given how muscle distributes weight differently in the body.
James Gunn, director of the superhero film Guardians of the Galaxy, took it one step further. Using the #girther hashtag, he offered to donate $US100,000 ($125,000) to charity if the President agreed to get on the scales again, this time in front of "an impartial medical professor, okayed by both of us".
Trump 6'3"
Obama 6'1"
???? #Girther #AlternativeFacts pic.twitter.com/5HhdMFE5k0??? Bill Jack (@ceomuscle) January 17, 2018
Mike Trout is 6'2" & 235 pounds
Donald Trump is 6'3" & 239 pounds pic.twitter.com/pgdDfFMCQD??? Dan Clark (@DanClarkSports) January 17, 2018
Trump's medical exam says he's 6'3" and 239 pounds. Albert Pujols is 6'3" and 240 pounds. If the dementia tests are equally accurate, we are doomed. pic.twitter.com/fn0u1xzzjI??? James Gunn (@JamesGunn) January 17, 2018
However, former Obama administration aides were quick to jump to Jackson's defence, describing him as a competent and skilled doctor who treated many White House staff under the previous president.
Others, including Walter Shaub, the former director of Office of Government Ethics, criticised the #girther crowd for fat shaming a president who is often criticised for belittling the physical attributes of his opponents.
Twitter is the sort of place where people who condemn Trump's wisecracks about physical attributes make wisecracks about his physical attributes.??? Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) January 17, 2018
Jackson spent an hour answering reporters' questions this week and he was repeatedly asked how septuagenarian with little exercise apart from golf and a love of fast food could register such an excellent bill of health.
"It's called genetics," he said. "I told the President if he had eaten healthier over the last 25 years, he might live to be 200."
He said Trump only slept for four to five hours a night but had "a lot of energy and a lot of stamina".
Exclusive! We have the test the doctor gave the President.
My @smh cartoon (for 18.1.18) pic.twitter.com/X8A9C1ApdH??? The Cathy Wilcox (@cathywilcox1) January 17, 2018
Still, he had a goal for Trump of losing four to seven kilograms through a regimen of diet and exercise.
"He's more enthusiastic about the diet part than the exercise part, but we're going to do both," he said.
On Thursday, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said they stood by the accuracy of everything in the doctor's report.
