The council on sports, fitness and nutrition lacks health expertise 

Council- Per Dictionary.Com

1) An assembly of people summoned or convened for consultation, deliberation, or advice.

2) A body of people specially designated or selected to act in an advisory, administrative, or legislative capacity.

   Councils will hold meetings where the members come together to generate ideas and discuss potential plans to display the council’s next goals and missions to promote a healthy lifestyle toward the public. However, the current PCSFN's website design does not include any information that the PCSFN is planning to meet or create new missions, nor, has the council has even held a meeting since the beginning of the Trump Administration's second term, according to the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.

   This is an interesting note when you realize the only information on the website is the mission statement (mentioned above) and who is involved within the PCSFN, which is 18 total members. You cannot click on any of members on the website for further details for what they do exactly on the council, which is unusual, especially for the council leadership positions of Chairman Bryson DeChambeau, Executive Director Catherine Granito, and Vice-Chairman Paul “Triple H” Levesque.

  Another statement that should be brought to attention is:

 “The Council is appointed by the President and is comprised of professional athletes, physicians, health and fitness leaders, and business professionals.”

According to The President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition – The White House 

Current Council Members:

1. Garry Bettman (Industrial and Labor Relations, then later his law degree) NHL Commissioner

2. Nick Bosa (Communications, but did not complete degree) Professional Football Player

3. Harrison Butker (Industrial Engineering) Professional Football Player

4. Cody Campbell (M.S. Finance; B.A. Business Economics) Oil Company CEO and Businessman

5. Bryson DeChambeau (Physics) Professional Golfer

6. Roger Goodell (Economics) NFL Commissioner

7. Catherine Granito (English Language and Literature Letters) 3.5 years of medical experience, mostly data collection and project management

8. Wayne Gretzky, doesn’t have a high school diploma, Professional Hockey Player

9. Nelly Korda, didn’t attend college, Professional Golfer

10. Alexi Lalas (English, minor in Music) Professional Soccer Player

11. Paul “Triple H”  Levesque (Biosecurity and Management) Professional Wrestler

12. Jack Nicklaus (Pre-Pharmacy) but dropped out to pursue golf. Professional Golfer

13. Gary Player (No-degree) Professional Golfer

14. Mariano Rivera (Industrial Engineering) Professional Baseball Player

15. Tony Romo (Business Administration) Professional Football Player

16. Annika Sorenstam (Nutrition) did not graduate, Professional Golfer

17. Lawerence Taylor (No degree) Professional Football Player

18. Matthew Tkachuk (No degree) Professional Hockey Player

Key:

Medical-related experience or degree in some capacity

Non-medical related degree

Did not graduate or does not have a degree

• The members are made up of 18 Former College and/or Pro Athletes (16 of which are professionals)

• Zero physicians

• Zero health and fitness leaders 

• Four of the 18 members are business leaders. 

• Eight of the 18 members don’t even have a college degree. 

As mentioned before, the statement, “The Council is appointed by the President and is comprised of professional athletes, physicians, health and fitness leaders, and business professionals,” lacks credibility because there is simply no expertise in the health and nutrition industry for the council, which is named, Council of Sports, Fitness and Nutrition.

   To put it in our group’s opinions, we suspect that this council is essentially only created for athletes to use their public status to support the current presidential administration. It is essentially sponsorship between popular sports figures and celebrities working with the presidential administration to gain followership and fandom for both parties. 

  The council is supported by five organizations, the WWE, NHL, NFL, PGA and the National Fitness Foundation (NFF). The one organization, of the five, that sticks out is the NFF, the only non-professional sports league that supports the PCSFN. The NFF is the official charity of the PCSFN where they supposedly promote health education.

 When we did further research, both the Instagram and X accounts have approximately 20 posts on each account, here is the information that they post to ensure that families are promoting a healthy lifestyle. (LOOK BELOW) 

   Everyone can recognize that this is barebone information. The problem is the lack of statistic-driven stats and research to support this potential health crisis. The NFF is really only providing redundant information without providing beneficial information that isn’t already general knowledge. 

   The Trump Administration and the PCSFN are collaborating to create these public announcements and stating their goals without explaining how they are going to do it. This is a way of misrepresentation, because the Council states that there are future goals in mind; however, the public has yet to receive any more information about future goal. Chairman DeChambeau even states in the oval office, after President Trump signed the fitness test executive order, “Our initiative is to reignite the fitness test, and also re-establish some key other metrics on guidelines around building some communities” and did not elaborate with further planning on these "key metrics."

   Every single member who stepped up to the podium of the oval office on July 31, 2025, explained their wants to improve activity but did not explain how they will go about the procedure. I also believe that it was unnecessary that the Trump Administration invited these athletes to help present this executive order when it seems like much of the influence came from the Trump Administration rather than the PCSFN. Also, DeChambeau wasn’t appointed as Chairman until this moment, so how much influence did he have on this executive order? We don’t exactly know. 

   It is possible that this event was pre-organized to invite these world-class athletes to the oval office for the purpose of the Trump Administration attempting to avoid questions about tariff prices. As several questions were about the tariffs with Iran and Canada, rather than asking DeChambeau, Levesque or Trump about the new executive order, maybe this order and gathering of this council, that lacks health expertise, was an attempt to frame the council and Trump administration for creating a beneficial order to avoid questions about tariffs.  

   Since this announcement and the executive order, the Trump Administration and the PCSFN have not made a public announcement about the future of the council or any goals to improve health. All the athletes do not post or promote their status or involvement into the council, circling back to the statement in the lead paragraph where we believe that this council has done nothing, since the President Fitness Test Executive Order.

   Rebuttal

   On the contrary, we have to recognize how the Trump Administration and the PCSFN’s decision to re-implement the Presidential Fitness Test can be extremely beneficial to the young generations of the 21st century. According to the CDC and the National Health and Examination Survey, Obesity was recorded to be present in 16.9% of children (aged 2-19) with another 14.9% to be overweight, this was the statistics a year before the Obama administration cut the presidential fitness test. In the recent 2024 study by the CDC, they found that 22.2% of children (aged 12-19) were obese. The World Health Organization backed these numbers up by saying that 20% of children 5-19 were overweight, compared to 1990 when it was only 8%. 

   Now it will take some time to observe the benefits of reviving the Presidential Fitness Test, but it was evident that the percentage of obese children has climbed since the fitness test was discontinued in 2013. However, if the fitness test does not adjust the numbers, then we can observe that there are other factors that need to be addressed outside of school fitness tests, which can be technology development with video games, phones, or lack of healthy nutrition with processed foods becoming more prevalent and cost affordable in the modern-day American diet. 

Conclusion

   This council is merely an attempt to frame itself as an actual organization that displays great leadership and progress that has developed orders and laws for the better of the United States civilians, which in reality, has lacked any progress or initiative to further prove itself as a beneficial organization that has provided for the people. This was a group comprised of influential humans that rely on their popularity and social status to create this false perspective that they are providing healthy lifestyles and information. We can apply the framing theory, which is a communication theory where information can often be misled or misrepresented to the media, and/or general public, as a way for the source to filter information or frame their perspective for the purpose of maximizing their influence without providing the full details. We believe the PCSFN is being described as a legitimate council that is influencing their image through professional athletes, rather than experts in health and nutrition to teach people to eat and live healthier.