THE BIG SHORT _ BARRY BLITT / ENDEL LEPP

/.../ By the end of March 2016, The New Yorker weighed in with a cover illustration titled the “The Big Short” by artist Barry Blitt, in which the illustrator is offering “a reading” of Donald Trump’s palm and hand — by Donald Trump — with various notations made by Trump on the fingers and lines of the palm. 

In a short accompanying piece at The New Yorker, Blitt briefly reviewed the practice of palmistry concluding: “it never really established itself as anything more than a pseudo-science.” It was banned by the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages, he further explained, but enjoyed a popular resurgence in the late nineteenth century. In palm reading, he explained, not only are the lines of the palm considered, but also the relative sizes of the hand and fingers. “Speaking of which,” he added, “I hope Donald Trump doesn’t actually become President.” Blitt would also draw Trump on other New Yorker covers with some attention to his hands, including “Grand Allusion “(May 23, 2016), and “Remote Control” (September 2025). /.../

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The Pop History Dig:

https://pophistorydig.com/topics/tag/short-fingered-vulgarian/ 

“Short-Fingered Vulgarian”

The author line beneath the book title at the bottom of the fake ad, used the phrase, “short-fingered vulgarian” for author Donald J. Trump. That description was used repeatedly by Spy in other Trump stories, and also by other critics and competitors as Trump later entered the presidential sweepstakes.

In a March 2016 NPR / Morning Edition radio interview with then former Spy co-editors Kurt Andersen and Graydon Carter, coming at a time when Trump was making his first run at the Republican presidential primaries. But Andersen and Carter explained to Morning Edition that for Spy magazine, Trump – then a rising outsider come to Manhattan – “epitomized so much of the sudden ostentation” of New York. In their view, self-promoting Trump embodied the brashness, the ostentation, the vulgarity of New York in the ’80s. And so, there was no question that he would be fair game for Spy’s special brand of barb-and-pique. 

On the “short-fingered vulgarian” tag, Carter explained that early on he had noticed Trump had small fingers for a tall man, and that’s where the phrase began to be formed and used at Spy. However, the phrase would go beyond Spy’s pages. In fact, the issue of Trump’s hands would figure into the early rounds of the 2016 Republican Presidential primaries, as Senator and presidential candidate Marco Rubio — who Trump had nicknamed “Little Marco” — took up his own name-calling during a February 28, 2016 campaign rally in Virginia, and taunted Trump on the size of his hands.

“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’s 5-2,” Rubio said to a cheering crowd. “Have you seen his hands?” And Rubio didn’t let up. “And you know what they say about men with small hands,” then pausing for dramatic effect. “You can’t trust ’em. You can’t trust ’em.”

That sent Trump into a tirade about his “great hands” both then, and also a few days later at the Republican Presidential debate in Detroit, noting Rubio’s remark, and holding up his hands for the audience as he spoke: “Look at those hands. Are those small hands?… And, he [Rubio] referred to my hands if they’re small, something else is small. I guarantee you there is no problem. I guarantee it.”

With that, the “small hands” kerfuffle took on a life of its own for a time, as several media outlets picked up on the story, including ABC News, Mother Jones, and others.

The Washington Post later reported that Trump again defended the size of his hands in an interview with the paper’s editorial board. “My hands are normal hands,” he said, according to the Post. “I was on line shaking hands with supporters and one of the supporters said, ‘Mr. Trump, you have strong hands, you have good size hands.’ And then another one would say, ‘Oh, you have great hands, Mr. Trump.’ I had no idea.”

By the end of March 2016, The New Yorker weighed in with a cover illustration titled the “The Big Short” by artist Barry Blitt, in which the illustrator is offering “a reading” of Donald Trump’s palm and hand — by Donald Trump — with various notations made by Trump on the fingers and lines of the palm. 

In a short accompanying piece at The New Yorker, Blitt briefly reviewed the practice of palmistry concluding: “it never really established itself as anything more than a pseudo-science.” It was banned by the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages, he further explained, but enjoyed a popular resurgence in the late nineteenth century. In palm reading, he explained, not only are the lines of the palm considered, but also the relative sizes of the hand and fingers. “Speaking of which,” he added, “I hope Donald Trump doesn’t actually become President.” Blitt would also draw Trump on other New Yorker covers with some attention to his hands, including “Grand Allusion “(May 23, 2016), and “Remote Control” (September 2025).