How One Little Joke in 'Spy' Triggered Donald Trump's Biggest Insecurity

[Zorro]

A three-word “epithet” that first appeared in the cult New York publication has haunted Trump for more than 30 years.

President Donald Trump famously has a long-running obsession with the size of his hands—an insecurity so deep he once felt compelled to announce, “My hands are normal hands,” to the Washington Post’s editorial board while running for president in 2016.

And Spy magazine co-founder Kurt Andersen explained how he helped plant that very insecurity more than 30 years ago, when the publication first called Trump a “short-fingered vulgarian,” on the latest episode of The Daily Beast Podcast.

Andersen explained that at Spy, the satirical magazine he co-founded with editor Graydon Carter in 1986, recurring figures were often branded with mocking nicknames and descriptors.

Trump, best known at the time as a real estate developer, was first called a “Queens-born casino operator,” Andersen said.

And then Carter, who later served as editor of Vanity Fair, noticed that Trump had small hands.

“We came up finally with ‘short-fingered vulgarian,’ and it stuck,” Andersen told co-hosts Joanna Coles and Samantha Bee.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-spy-magazine-triggered-trumps-biggest-insecurity/

I enjoyed reading Spy back in the day, and still have a stack of them in the house.

[JoseBalow]

1. drumpf Speaks to WaPo: A Dramatic Reenactment

This is a re-enactment of a verbatim excerpt of drumpf's interview with the Washington Post:

(2:57)

[Skittles]

2. I can honestly say my fingers are longer than Trump's

yes indeed

[ShazzieB]

4. Mine are definitely shorter than Schlump's.

But i don't count, because I'm a woman, I'm at least a foot shorter than him, and I freely admit that I have ridiculously tiny hands, beccause I do!

[Skittles]

5. I'm short but my fingers are long

Trump's palms look normal size but his fingers are definitely short. I'm really glad it bugs him though so carry one everyone!

[ShazzieB]

6. Yes, his discomfiture is very amusing! 🤣

[NJCher]

3. Do we have a new initialism?

SFV?

I recall reading “SPY“, too.

[brush]

7. SFV. Good one.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

8. Graydon Carter is Canadian. . . . . nt

[FakeNoose]

9. Jimmy Kimmel did it best!

(That's Stormy Daniels selecting the correctly-sized mushroom.)