Former Secret Service Agent Claims Trump’s Too Fat to Have Reached the Steering Wheel

Olivier Douliery, AFP/Getty Images.

A former Secret Service agent claims Donald Trump’s “girth” would have prevented him from reaching the steering wheel of an armored SUV on Jan. 6, 2021.

On Tuesday, former White House staffer Cassidy Hutchinson testified before the Jan. 6 committee. She said a Secret Service agent named Tony Ornato told her Trump had briefly grabbed the steering wheel as he was being driven back to the White House. Trump had just held a rally at the Ellipse in Washington, D.C., where he encouraged his supporters to march to the Capitol where the election was about to be certified in Joe Biden’s favor.

Trump told the crowd he would join them, but once he got in the vehicle, Secret Service told him they were taking him to the White House instead of the Capitol because doing so would be unsafe. He reportedly became “irate” and grabbed the steering wheel, said Hutchinson while relaying Ornato’s telling of the story:

Tony described him as being irate. The president said something to the effect of, “I’m the F-ing president! Take me up to the Capitol now”

To which Bobby responded, “Sir, we have to go back to the West Wing.”

The president reached up towards the front of the vehicle to grab at the steering wheel. Mr. Engels grabbed his arm, said, “Sir, you need to take your hand off the steering wheel. We’re going back to the West Wing. We’re not going to the Capitol.”

Mr. Trump then used his free hand to lunge towards Bobby Engel and Mr., when Mr. Ornato had recounted the story to me, he had motioned towards his clavicles.

In a story published on Insider, an unnamed Secret Service agent said it wouldn’t be possible for Trump to reach the wheel due to his “girth”:

“Trump’s not a little guy, right? And the space to actually be able to lunge towards the wheel is not that big,” the former agent told Insider. “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.”