Why Is Trump So Obsessed With Size?
President Donald Trump’s apparent obsession with height could actually be a prejudice that leaves him judging shorter people as less powerful than those who stand taller.
Last week, the 6-foot-1 president accused Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee of falling for a setup by The New York Times, and on Tuesday he took to Twitter to mock Corker's height and suggested it could, somehow, contribute to his being conned.
Corker is 5-foot-7.
“The Failing @nytimes set Liddle’ Bob Corker up by recording his conversation,” Trump wrote. “Was made to sound a fool, and that’s what I am dealing with!”
By calling Corker “liddle,” Trump was returning to a comfortable theme—not only in unappealing nicknames (Crooked Hillary and Lying Ted Cruz), but also his recurring attention to size.
He considered Corker for secretary of state after winning the election, but, according to the New York Times, ultimately decided Corker was “too short to be the nation’s top diplomat” — ignoring that his predecessor, Hillary Clinton, is 5-foot-5. So, Trump opted for the taller and somehow more respectable Rex Tillerson, who is 5-foot-10.
Then again, height isn't everthing. After Tillerson allegedly called Trump a "moron," the president challenged him to an IQ test.
And this is just the latest for Donald Trump's size obsession. Just last month, he threw his support behind Luther Strange, a Republican candidate for the Alabama senate, calling his candidate "Big Luther," as if Strange's stature existed only because of his 6-foot-9 frame.
In the end, Strange lost to Roy Moore, who is shorter.
But then again, Little Marco — the 5-foot-9 Florida Senator — lost to Trump.
The President's belittling of opponents’ size could be more than a way to bolster his list of insults. He may be hiring and firing people based on what lawyer Tanya Osensky calls "heightism."
This idea isn’t just coming up in Osensky’s studies. Another study showed that people who are 6-foot or taller earn $5,000 more a year than shorter employees in companies led by a heightist.
This is just one of the many times size has been of upmost importance to the president: His obsession with the size of his hands during the presidential election, and even the overt mentions of the size of his penis, are examples.
Heightism is, however, a condition that could affect how he see's his employees and adversaries. After all, Kim Jong Un, the North Korean leader Trump has offended and ridiculed multiple times over the past few months, stands at just 5-foot-7.
Beyond his political allies and enemies, and his own body parts, President Trump has continuously focused on size, saying he drew the largest crowd to his inauguration (he didn't) and that his inaugural cake was much bigger than President Obama's (it wasn't).
This preoccupation with size, some psychologists believe, could be Trump has a narcissistic personality disorder.
"When Trump tweeted about his imaginary inauguration crowd size... was there any part of him that believed this 'denial of reality?' If so ... Trump is not crazy like a fox but 'crazy like a crazy,'" psychiatrist Bandy Lee writes In her contribution to the book The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump.
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