Ever since former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson gave her explosive testimony to the January 6th committee last week, all anyone can really talk about is the story she told about a very petulant President Donald Trump really, really wanting to follow his fans to the Capitol.
According to Hutchinson, when the then-president was told in no uncertain terms that he was being taken back to the White House, he allegedly attempted to choke out a Secret Service agent and commandeer the presidential limo, a.k.a. The Beast, by grabbing the steering wheel.
In some ways, the idea of Trump acting like a James Bond villain (Goldlittlefingers) actually makes him seem a little bit more badass than most people thought. But several people have decried Hutchinson’s testimony as absolute hogwash (she, however, “stands by all” of it). While Trump himself threw cold water on the story by claiming he’s far too weak to take on a Secret Service agent—”These guys lift 350 pounds. I don’t,” he told Newsmax—another ex-Secret Service agent has a different idea about why it would be nearly impossible for the former president to manage such feats of strengths: he’s too damn fat.
Insider spoke with several former Secret Service agents, many of whom questioned Trump’s physical wherewithal to actually accomplish the superhero-ish moves Hutchinson described. And while they did remain anonymous, they didn’t mince words when it came to why they weren’t so sure about Hutchinson’s testimony, with one agent—in the understatement of the year—claiming Trump is “not the most agile human being.” Then he took it even further:
“Trump’s not a little guy, right? And the space to actually be able to lunge towards the wheel is not that big. I don’t mean to sound disparaging to the former president, but just his girth would prevent him from actually getting to the steering wheel.”
While Hutchinson’s retelling of the story was compelling, and her testimony has since come under scrutiny by a handful of Trump insiders, the idea of the portly former president trying and failing to take control of The Beast might be even more juicy (and could explain why he purportedly threw his ketchup-loaded lunch plate at a White House wall later on).
UPDATE: As it turns out, Trump was not shuffled around in the Beast on Jan 6th — he was transported around via an armored SUV, so it is actually possible for the obese former president to have grabbed the steering wheel after all, it appears.
(Via Insider)