A video has been broadcast on Fox News, showing US President Donald Trump reminding hurricane victims of his “small hands” joke from the 2016 presidential campaign.
The president, who had been criticized for not meeting with Hurricane Harvey survivors on his first trip to the disaster zone, went back to Houston, Texas, with his wife on Saturday to make it right.
“The message is that things are working out well,” he told reporters. “Really, I think people appreciate what’s been done. It’s been done very efficiently, very well, and that’s what we want. We’re very happy with the way everything is going.”
Accompanied by the Texas Governor Greg Abbott, and the city’s mayor, Sylvester Turner, the president and Melania Trump met families at a storm shelter in a sports stadium.
“They were just happy. We saw a lot of happiness,” Trump said. “It’s been really nice. It’s been a wonderful thing. As tough as this was, it’s been a wonderful thing, I think, even for the country to watch it and for the world to watch. It’s been beautiful.”
While helping volunteers hand out meals, Trump joked about his hands again, saying, “My hands are too big.”
During the 2016 campaign, Trump made an effort to confront the mockery of his “tiny hands.”
"Look at those hands, are they small hands? And he referred to my hands—'If they're small, something else must be small.' I guarantee you there's no problem. I guarantee you," he said during a debate.
Trump’s hands were brought into attention by the Spy magazine editor Graydon Carte, who referred to him as “short-fingered vulgarian” after his campaign was hit by a 2005 video, in which he bragged about groping women without their consent.
Carter, who works for Vanity Fair now, has said that he still receives mail from Trump disputing the claim.
“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 [in a photograph] 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,” Carter wrote in an article titled“Steel Traps and Short Fingers.”
Florida Senator Marco Rubio took advantage of the size of Trump’s hands to attack him ahead of the 2016 presidential election.