Forget the economy or ISIS: Hand size becomes issue in GOP race

Dylan Stableford
·Senior Writer
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Donald Trump’s hands as seen at his Super Tuesday press conference in Palm Beach. (Photos: Reuters/Scott Audette)

The 2016 presidential campaign has been, hands down, the strangest election cycle in recent memory. And those aforementioned appendages are suddenly front and center in the race for the Republican nomination.

The hands flap began Sunday night, when Florida Sen. Marco Rubio mocked the size of Republican frontrunner Donald Trump’s hands.

“He’s always calling me ‘Little Marco.’ And I’ll admit he’s taller than me. He’s like 6'2”, which is why I don’t understand why his hands are the size of someone who is 5'2",” Rubio said at a rally in Virginia Sunday night. “And you know what they say about men with small hands? You can’t trust them.”

At a rally in Columbus, Ohio, on Tuesday, Trump fired back.

“He said I have small hands,” Trump told supporters. “I’m actually 6'3”, not 6'2" — but I’ve always heard people say, 'Donald, you have the most beautiful hands.’”

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Marco Rubio shakes hands with Donald Trump at the conclusion of a Republican debate in South Carolina in January. (Photo: Chris Keane/Reuters)

But the billionaire real estate mogul has long been known to be sensitive about his hand size.

In October, Vanity Fair’s Graydon Carter recalled an exchange he had with Trump when he was the editor of Spy magazine:

Just to drive him a little bit crazy, I took to referring to him as a “short-fingered vulgarian” in the pages of Spy magazine. That was more than a quarter of a century ago. To this day, I receive the occasional envelope from Trump. There is always a photo of him—generally a tear sheet from a magazine. On all of them he has circled his hand in gold Sharpie in a valiant effort to highlight the length of his fingers. I almost feel sorry for the poor fellow because, to me, the fingers still look abnormally stubby. The most recent offering arrived earlier this year, before his decision to go after the Republican presidential nomination. Like the other packages, this one included a circled hand and the words, also written in gold Sharpie: “See, not so short!” I sent the picture back by return mail with a note attached, saying, “Actually, quite short.” Which I can only assume gave him fits.


That those notes were written in gold Sharpie “is so quintessentially Donald Trump,“ HBO’s John Oliver said on "Last Week Tonight” Sunday. “Something that gives the passing appearance of wealth but is actually just a cheap tool.”

Trump isn’t the only GOP candidate with a hand fixation. During last week’s Republican debate, Dr. Ben Carson dedicated his closing statement to his so-called “gifted hands.”

“Several years ago a movie was made about these hands,“ the retired neurosurgeon said. “These hands by the grace of God have saved many lives and healed many families. And I’m asking you tonight, America, to join hands with me.”

On Tuesday, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who dropped his bid for the Republican nomination in September, tweeted a photo of his hand in an apparent reference to the tête-à-tête between Trump and Rubio.

Twitter responded by mocking Walker — handily.