Donald Trump is the perfect example of misplaced male vanity: a flabby brute who can’t cope with hair loss or exercise

Is there anything more unattractive than an overweight man of a certain age?

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump points to the crowd during a rally (AP)

Does fitness to lead a country, to assume control over launching a nuclear weapon, require a certain level of physical rather than mental health?

Donald Trump is managing to divert the battle for the US Presidency into a face-off over medical reports. Whether he admits it or not, however, Trump has turned Hillary’s pneumonia into a sign she’s not tough enough to do the job. It’s an irrelevance, a sign of desperation. The US has already been in the hands of a very old man well past his mental and physical prime – Ronald Reagan – whose movie star charisma got him through a crisis rather than an ability to grasp complex issues.

George W Bush was a former alcoholic with a troubled past and few qualities as a thinker, a homespun fellow from a privileged dynasty with a very small idea of the world, uncurious to a bothering degree. Nowadays, the choice that Americans face is between a bombastic bully and a woman who might lack charm but who is clearly more than intelligent, experienced and committed to take on the job.

God help any female high-flyer who might stumble or trip on her tortuous struggle to the top. Margaret Thatcher was extremely wary of exhibiting weakness, fearful that to display emotion would give her enemies a chance to attack. Only when her son Mark was presumed lost during a motor rally in Africa did we briefly glimpse Maggie the mother.

Maggie’s drinking and her health issues were never discussed publicly. When Theresa May took office, the subject of her diabetes was raised by scaremongers and quickly forgotten, but the fact May’s health was even discussed was ridiculous, given that Britain has been led by chronic alcoholics like Winston Churchill in the past.

Donald Trump is a flabby brute, who can’t cope with hair loss or any form of exercise. Telling us that flapping his arms around at rallies was “in its own way a pretty healthy act” shows a high level of delusion. He also claimed that appearing under hot lights was “like a sauna”.

Last December his team claimed that he would be “the healthiest individual elected to the presidency” – but he weighs 17 stone, making him at least a stone overweight, and is taking statins to control his cholesterol.

Trump is less than a year older than me and is a perfect example of misplaced male vanity. Is there anything more unattractive than an overweight man of a certain age? Let’s hope that Americans don’t fall for Donald Trump’s version of fitness for office.