Don't call Donald Trump a “short-fingered vulgarian” or he will send you pictures of his fingers for the next 25 years

“See, not so short!” an obviously wounded Trump still writes to the editor of Vanity Fair all these years later

By Sophia Tesfaye

Senior Politics Editor

Published October 8, 2015 8:16PM (EDT)

Donald Trump                      (Reuters/Brendan Mcdermid)
Donald Trump (Reuters/Brendan Mcdermid)

Graydon Carter, the longtime editor of Vanity Fair, has just revealed the depths of Donald Trump's deep narcissism, recalling a time more than 25 years ago when he slighted the thin-skinned megalomaniac and the resulting and ongoing response from Trump in his latest editor's letter:

Like so many bullies, Trump has skin of gossamer. He thinks nothing of saying the most hurtful thing about someone else, but when he hears a whisper that runs counter to his own vainglorious self-image, he coils like a caged ferret. 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.

"I don’t call it thin-skinned, I’m angry,” Trump recently told CBS' Scott Pelley, complaining of an unfair media that "write lies" and "write false stories.”

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By Sophia Tesfaye

Sophia Tesfaye is Salon's senior editor for news and politics, and resides in Washington, D.C. You can find her on Twitter at @SophiaTesfaye.

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