‘The guy does not eat well’: Evangelical Franklin Graham turns on Trump and says he’s too unhealthy for 2024 run

Donald Trump could be ‘too unhealthy’ to run for president again, his long-time supporter Franklin Graham has claimed

Influential evangelical leader and Donald Trump supporter Franklin Graham has suggested that the former president could be too out of shape to run for election again.

In 2019, Mr Trump’s physical official declared him clinically obese at 243lbs.

Mr Graham, head of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and one of the former president’s earliest backers, told Axios on HBO that Mr Trump “does not eat well” and that his political ambitions might be thwarted by his “health”.

Mr Graham told the show: “I think for him, everything will depend on his health at that time. If he still has energy and strength like he does. I don’t.”

He added: “The guy does not eat well, you know, and it’s amazing the energy that he has.”

However, Mr Graham also conceded that he believed Mr Trump had lost weight. “He’s lost weight, 15 pounds, maybe”, he said.

“So he might be in good health and in good shape. I don’t know.”

Evangelist Franklin Graham addresses the Republican National Convention in a pre-recorded speech at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium, in Washington, DC, on August 27, 2020. (AFP via Getty Images)

In 2024 Mr Trump would be 78, the same age that Joe Biden is now. President Biden would be 82 years old.

Mr Trump has been teasing a potential run for the Republican nomination again but has not yet made anything official.

It was revealed this week that he could be planning to host his first public rallies since the 6 January insurrection, which left five people dead, including one US Capitol officer.

Mr Trump’s health has been a source of speculation for years.

He is known to be a fast food fan and is believed to take no other exercise than a round on the golf course. He suffers from high cholesterol, for which he takes a statin. 

Last year he was hospitalised with Covid-19 and received multiple experimental treatments. 

Due to years of misinformation and contradictory statements, it remains impossible to assess the reality of his current health.

In 2015 doctor Harold Bornstein famously said that “If elected, Mr Trump, I can state unequivocally, will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency” and that Trump’s “physical strength and stamina are extraordinary”, and his bloodwork was “astonishingly excellent”.

Nearly three years later Bornstein admitted that Trump had dictated the note himself.

In 2018 a doctor reported that he weighed 239lb during his annual medical exam, making him nearly medically obese.

The doctor also claimed that Mr Trump was 6ft3inches, an inch taller than on his driving licence.