Our current president takes the back seat in a golf cart instead of walking. He downs monster Big Macs in lieu of salads and cody christian sex videoguzzles Diet Cokes like they're water.
But in better(ish!) times, even our most toxically masculine leaders seemed to care about exercise, and did so while rocking teeny-tiny runner's booty shorts.
SEE ALSO: Jimmy Carter shook everyone's hands on a flight to Atlanta because that's his thingI can't say I ever longed to see any of my presidents in anything but profoundly boring suits. That being said, I find it soothing to see our leaders go outside to do something in nature that doesn't involve a golf course or a mediocre Florida resort.
Whatever you think of our pre-Donald Trump presidents, at least they were marginally in touch with reality. Unlike Trump, they understood that the body doesn't have a "finite amount of energy."
Presidential jogging actually started with President Carter, who was in power when the form of cardio started gaining popularity in the 1970s.
"Carter is the classic jogger of the 1970s, albeit somewhat older," Paul Milvy, an assistant professor of community medicine at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, told the Washington Postin 1979.
Not only did Carter stan jogging, he did it while rocking incredible short-shorts. Look at Carter werk that aesthetic while president. He was in the late 50s when he decided to show this much thigh:
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable 
Here's Jimmy Carter with his trainer in 1979. Again, he's in white shorts. Credit: Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images 
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable 
Clear eyes little shorts can't lose Credit: Corbis via Getty Images Whatever you think about his policies, Carter was a short-short jogging icon. Unfortunately, President Ronald Reagan didn't jog while in office, so it was eight years before his successor President George H.W. Bush could pick up where Carter left off.
Bush was in his mid-sixties when he became president and started jogging regularly in front of the camera.
There were far longer, more fashionable shorts in style at the time. Bush nonetheless chose...this look:
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable 
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable 
George H.W. Bush copping Carter's style in 1980 Credit: cynthia johnson/Getty Images 
Presidential stretching Credit: cynthia johnson/Getty Images The single-term president showed a lot of of skin for sure. Frankly, however, my favorite photo of the era is this image of Barbara Bush "jogging," according to the original photo caption.
The woman is in full-length chino pants and a white polo. She's not breaking a sweat, she's not even trotting. She's got a fresh perm. This, my friends, is how you jog.
Barbara Bush jogging couture Credit: mark reinstein/Corbis via Getty Images Then we had President Bill Clinton, who took the jogging short-short and made it even tinier. The man basically wore bikini underwear in public.
Then Vice President Al Gore tried to sex it down with a map-print T-shirt, but even he couldn't resist the appeal of the short-short.
Unprecedented upper-thigh transparency Credit: tim clary/AFP/Getty Images 
Clinton rocking fuschia and then Sen. Joe Lieberman in a UConn Huskies tee. Credit: Robert Giroux/AFP/Getty Images 
Put on some pants, Mr. President Credit: Cynthia johnson/Getty Images Clinton even occasionally struggled with a classic '90s athleisure problem: wearing tiny shorts with an oversized shirt (or in his case, sweatshirt,) making it appear as if he's wearing a mini dress.
The president in a shorty short "dress" Credit: luke frazza/AFP/Getty Images Tragically for some I guess, Clinton and the short-shorts era came to an end with the election of President George W. Bush. Over time, Bush extended the length of the presidential jogging short to a more traditional, mid-thigh length.
The era of the radical short-shorts was dead.
Please wear track pants Credit: paul buck/AFP/Getty Images 
Could use a sweatband Credit: Paul AFP/Getty Images You might imagine that President Barack Obama was a big jogger. Unfortunately, Obama typically exercised in private (except for that time he and then Vice President Joe Biden jogged in their office attire, which has its own kind of appeal.)
Via GiphyAnd President Trump does this.
Trump is technically moving, so there's that Credit: ludovic marin/AFP/Getty Images Sigh. Let's not get too nostalgic. I'm not particularly interested in seeing any of these men in short-shorts in the future.
We all, however, should aspire to see something better, like a president who moves, or who at the very least demonstrates knowledge of the U.S. Constitution.
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