Donald Trump’s height and weight discrepancies began in his first few months as president-elect, with Politico reporting a one-inch height difference between his 6-feet 2-inches driver’s license height and the 6-feet 3-inches measurement listed on his official White House physical in December 2016. Slate speculated that the mysterious extra inch was an attempt to keep Trump out of the “obese” BMI range. A profile on Trump published by Time reiterated the taller height, saying, “It irritates [Donald] that so many media outlets say 6-foot-2” (via Politico).
Columnist Jay Mathews, who has studied the effect of height in political elections for over three decades, reported in 2020 that Trump used height as a means of attack toward his opponents. Mathews offers various examples of Trump using diminutive language to describe his foes, including phrases like “Little Marco,” “Liddle’ Adam Schiff,” and tweets like this where Trump writes of Michael Bloomberg, “Mini Mike is a short ball (very) hitter” (via Washington Post).
Based on author Michael Wolff’s allegations in “Siege: Trump Under Fire,” Trump’s obsession with height has worsened an already tense relationship with his only son with his third wife, Melania Trump. “He doesn’t get along with his son, he doesn’t communicate with his son … his son is effectively not at all a part of his life,” Wolff told Lawrence O’Donnell in 2019.
Post source: The List
