When you scroll through social media you’ll spot the stark contrast between a lean Barack Obama and his not‑so‑lean successor. Yet, the United States’ former president Donald J. Trump isn’t even the most rotund U.S. chief executive ever, and his girth pales in comparison to many heavyweight rulers from across the globe. In this roundup we count down the top 10 fattest world leaders, spotlighting their lives, the culinary habits that contributed to their size, and a few quirky facts you probably never heard.
What Makes the Top 10 Fattest Leaders So Fascinating
From medieval conquerors who dined on fermented mare’s milk to contemporary autocrats whose weight‑gain sparked headlines, each figure on this list offers a unique glimpse into how power, privilege, and plate can intersect. Let’s dive into the details, rank by rank.
10 Kublai Khan
Kublai Khan, the fifth Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, was groomed by his legendary grandfather Genghis Khan to become a ruler. He learned horseback riding, archery, and the finer points of Chinese philosophy in his youth, and by his twenties he was granted a modest territory in northern China to govern.
After a bitter rivalry with his own brother, Kublai seized the title of Great Khan, unified China, and founded the Yuan dynasty—a blend of Mongol and Chinese rule that lasted from 1260 until his death in 1294. The loss of his beloved wife and eldest son drove him into a deep melancholy, which he soothed with excessive feasting and libations, ultimately leading to obesity, gout, and other ailments.
Kublai passed away on 18 February 1294 at the age of 78, his remains interred in the secret burial grounds of the Mongol elite. How to get fat in Mongolia in the 1200s: The Mongol diet was simple yet hearty—dairy, fruit, vegetables, and herbs formed the base, while meat from sheep, goats, oxen, camels, yaks, and wild game supplied protein. Fermented mare’s milk was a beloved alcoholic drink. Although the fare was nutritious, over‑indulgence was the true culprit behind his weight gain. Fun Fact: Genghis Khan earns an honorable mention as a fat world leader.
9 Henry VIII
Henry VIII, the second Tudor monarch, ascended the English throne at just 17 years old in 1509 and reigned until his death in 1547. His six marriages were driven by a desperate quest for a male heir, and his determination to annul his first marriage sparked a break with the Pope, birthing the Church of England.
Hygiene in the 16th century was rudimentary, and the once‑athletic Henry developed leaky boils and a chronic, foul‑smelling ulcer on his leg after a jousting mishap. His appetite matched his power; he consumed massive feasts and, as his waist expanded, required mechanical aids to move. Historians suspect he also suffered from type‑2 diabetes. He died on 28 January 1547 at 55.
How to get fat in England in the 1500s: Wealthy Tudors relished bread, meat, and sweets. Banquets featured pork legs, meat pies, gingerbread, and sugared almonds. Water was considered unsafe, so the aristocracy guzzled wine, while the lower classes settled for hop‑less ale. Fun Fact: In his youth, Henry was a fit and athletic sportsman.
8 Maria Theresa
Empress Maria Theresa ruled the Habsburg lands from 1740 to 1780, becoming the sole female sovereign of the dynasty after her father, Emperor Charles VI, died. She governed a sprawling empire that included Austria, Transylvania, and a dozen other territories, overseeing a reign that lasted four decades.
Historical records credit her with birthing 16 children, among them Marie Antoinette—mistakenly famed for the “let them eat cake” line, which she never uttered. Maria Theresa passed away on 29 November 1780 at age 63, with sources differing on whether a heart attack or pneumonia caused her death.
How to get fat in Austria in the 1700s: The Habsburg culinary scene boasted coffee, crêpes, sausages, pastries, soups, dumplings, and soufflés—delicious indulgences that contributed to the era’s robust diets. Fun Fact: Maria Theresa was openly anti‑Semitic.
7 William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft, the 27th U.S. president and later the 10th chief justice, hailed from Cincinnati, Ohio. After graduating from Yale and the University of Cincinnati College of Law, he entered the Ohio bar in 1880.
Winning the presidency in November 1908 with the endorsement of Theodore Roosevelt, Taft served until his 1912 defeat by Woodrow Wilson. Standing 6 ft 0 in tall, he earned nicknames like “Big Lub” and “Big Bill.” While in office he weighed roughly 159 kg (350 lb) and required a custom‑made porcelain bathtub measuring 2.1 m long, 104 cm wide, and weighing 907 kg to accommodate his size. He died on 8 March 1930 at 72 from cardiovascular disease.
How to get fat in the US in the early 1900s: The era’s food landscape exploded with new treats: cotton candy, puffed rice, hot dogs, peanut butter, ice‑cream cones, Jell‑O, Popsicles, and soft drinks like Dr Pepper and Hires root beer, spurred by the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair and the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. Fun Fact: Taft was the last president to keep a cow for fresh milk at the White House.
6 Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer‑Churchill led Britain as prime minister during two critical periods: 1940‑1945 and 1951‑1955. He received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, the same year he earned a Nobel Prize for Literature.
Churchill’s later years were marred by health issues—a heart attack in 1941 and pneumonia in 1943—culminating in a fatal stroke on 24 January 1965 at the age of 90.
How to get fat in Britain in the mid‑1900s: Wartime rationing replaced bananas, onions, and chocolate with dried eggs, potatoes, and Spam. Creative cooks substituted natural sugars for unavailable butter, flour, and sugar, even inventing carrot‑flavored fudge. Fun Fact: Churchill was named an honorary citizen of the United States.
5 Georgy Malenkov
After Joseph Stalin’s death, Georgy Maximilianovich Malenkov briefly steered the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1955. He joined the Red Army at 16, quickly enlisting in the Communist Party and climbing the ranks.
By 1946 he had entered the Politburo as a candidate member, and following the mysterious death of a rival in 1948, Stalin appointed him to a senior post. He resigned in 1955, attempted a coup against Nikita Khrushchev in 1957, and lived out his remaining years in obscurity, passing away in 1988 at 86.
How to get fat in the USSR in the mid‑1950s: Cold‑War cuisine featured dishes like okroshka, aspic, and blini, alongside indulgences such as fried eggs with jam, chicken Kiev, and caviar. Fun Fact: No English‑language biography of Georgy Malenkov exists.
4 Idi Amin
Idi Amin seized power in Uganda in 1971, ruling brutally until 1979. His regime was marked by widespread atrocities, with estimates of half a million extrajudicial killings, while he indulged in a lavish lifestyle amid a crumbling economy.
After being overthrown, Amin fled to Saudi Arabia, where he lived until his death from kidney failure on 16 August 2003 at age 78.
How to get fat in Uganda in the 1970s: The national dish, matoke (steamed green bananas), formed a staple, complemented by beans, peanuts, plantains, sweet potatoes, and even deep‑fried grasshoppers. Ugandan cuisine blended English, Arab, and Indian influences. Fun Fact: Rumors persist that Amin practiced cannibalism.
3 Laurent Kabila
Laurent Kabila emerged as the third president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire). He first organized a revolutionary army during the Congo Crisis in 1960, though the effort failed, and the country fell under the autocratic rule of Mobutu Sese Seko after a 1965 coup.
In 1967 Kabila founded the People’s Revolutionary Party, amassing wealth through extortion and robbery over two decades. Presumed dead in 1988, he resurfaced in 1996 to launch the First Congo War, eventually overthrowing Mobutu in 1997 and ruling until his assassination by a bodyguard in 2001 at age 61.
How to get fat in the Congo in the 1990s: Congolese meals often combined starchy bases with vegetables and meat to create hearty stews, accompanied by fermented bread, green leafy vegetables, fish, rice, and spicy sauces. Fun Fact: Kabila was involved in wildlife poaching and ivory smuggling.
2 Abu Abdul Bari
Abu Abdul Bari, known as the “Mufti of Mosul,” never ruled a nation but commanded a terrifyingly obese ISIS faction. Not to be confused with Adel Abdel Bari, an Egyptian militant, Bari weighed a staggering 254 kg (560 lb) and earned nicknames like “Shifa al‑Nima,” “Jabba the Jihadi,” and “the Islamic State’s very own Jabba the Hutt.” In January 2020, authorities captured him, finding him too massive for a police car and forced to be transported on a flatbed truck.
Before his arrest, Bari issued inflammatory religious decrees (fatwas) and justified the enslavement, sexual exploitation, and torture of minorities such as the Yazidis. He claimed that ISIS militants ate only one meal a day, sometimes resorting to cannibalism when supplies ran low, suggesting his own obesity resulted from years of seclusion and unknown dietary habits.
Becoming a fat ISIS leader in the 2000s: While ISIS fighters often subsisted on a single daily ration, the scarcity of food and occasional resort to extreme measures likely contributed to Bari’s massive size. Fun Fact: In 2014, he ordered the demolition of a mosque believed to sit atop the burial site of the prophet Jonah.
1 Kim Jong Un
Kim Jong Un has ruled North Korea as its supreme leader since 2011, following the footsteps of his father and grandfather. Upon assuming power, he purged numerous senior officials, cementing a legacy marked by nuclear tests, cyber‑warfare, economic hardship, prison camps, and severe human‑rights abuses.
Reports from 2009 describe Kim as a heavy smoker suffering from hypertension and diabetes. By 2015, he had reportedly added over 30 kg (66 lb) of body fat in five years, bringing his weight to approximately 130 kg (290 lb).
How to get fat in North Korea in the 2000s: The North Korean diet includes cold noodles, tofu, rice, and porridge, with poultry, beef, and seafood also available. Meals are flavored with bean paste, sesame oil, ginger, and pepper flakes, generally milder than South Korean cuisine. Fun Fact: Kim Jong Un’s exact birthdate remains a mystery.