Trump riffs on predecessors in children’s podcast appearance

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President Donald Trump riffed on his White House predecessors in a children’s podcast Friday, while also joking about his weight and musing as to whether his body is swimsuit-ready.

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Speaking with Usha Vance on “Storytime with the Second Lady,” as America celebrated its 250th birthday, the billionaire property tycoon opened with his favorite topic — real estate, of course.

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The pair were sitting in the White House Oval Office, explained the 80-year-old grandfather of 11.

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“It’s the most powerful piece of real estate, probably in the world. Everything starts here, ends here, starts again,” he said, with a plush bald eagle at his elbow.

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Trump then added that he doesn’t have much time to read books.

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“I end up reading mostly newspapers. I usually read stories about myself,” he said.

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Turning to “Presidents Play!”, a book detailing pastimes of former White House occupants, Trump offered a stream of commentary as he flipped through the illustrated pages.

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Abraham Lincoln rode horses: “I’d like to ride horses, too,” Trump said, but warned of the risks of falling off.

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“We get a nice old horse that’s extremely slow, lazy, and maybe ride him.”

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John Quincy Adams swam in a nearby creek.

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“I think we’re building a beautiful ballroom on top of it, based on this picture,” Trump noted, referring to his pet construction project which has been snarled by lawsuits.

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Franklin D Roosevelt swam in an indoor pool which today is the White House press room, while Gerald Ford enjoyed an outdoor pool, Trump said.

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“I don’t know if I look good in a bathing suit. I haven’t had a bathing suit in a long time. I’m too busy,” Trump said.

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John F. Kennedy was a sailor and “the second most good-looking president,” Trump said, leaving unsaid who is the first.

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Bill Clinton, a jogger, “actually was a nice guy.”

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“I like Bill Clinton a lot,” Trump said, making him a rare Democrat to earn a spot on Trump’s list of nice people, even though his wife Hillary — whom Trump defeated in the 2016 election — is a longtime political nemesis.

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Trump said another foe, Barack Obama, liked to shoot hoops but “I don’t know if he’s a good basketball player. I tend to doubt it.”

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Baseball fan William Howard Taft, who served from 1909 to 1913, was America’s heaviest president at well over 300 pounds (136 kilos).

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“I have to be careful because I don’t want to supersede his record, and a thing like that would be possible if I allowed it to happen,” said Trump, a big man himself who is known to like junk food.

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Turning to a current topic, Vance asked Trump why children should celebrate Saturday’s anniversary of the US declaration of independence from Britain.

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“We have a great country. We have a country that is under a little bit of a ledge right now,” he said. “It can go one way or another, you understand that, but we’re going to go the other.”

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