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Trump has a penchant for disparaging his political opponents with labels like "crooked Hillary", "sleepy Joe Biden" and so forth.

Recently Trump called Michael Bloomberg "little", in relation to Bloomberg's potential candidacy for presidency. It this an allusion to Bloomberg's height, or just his political chances/stance? Did Trump say anything that can shed light on this?

If Trump wasn't explicit, I see from Wikipedia that Trump has actually called more than a half-dozen people "little" over time. What was their average height?

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    This doesn't make sense to close as based on internal motivations. If he was asking about Trump's nickname for Warren we could answer that it was a reference to her claims about her family history. If he was asking about Trump's nickname for Clinton we could answer that it was about public perceptions of her being a corrupt insider. This isn't asking for the internal motivation of why Trump chose this particular strategy of schoolyard name calling, it's asking what attribute or perception he's playing off of (or if none exists). I'm open to this being closed, but this is the wrong reason. – lazarusL Nov 11 '19 at 21:16
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    it seems like the kind of insult one says when they want to say something mean but don't have a specific complaint. – dandavis Nov 12 '19 at 18:31
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    How is this question on-topic? Just because Trump said it, doesn't make it a political issue. Are we going to have a question about every insult or personal attack a politician makes? What's next, a question comparing hand size or penis length? – divibisan Nov 12 '19 at 22:07
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    @divibisan: of course it's not a guarantee that there is political issue, but Trump clearly resorts to these nicknames in his rhetoric. And "little" appears slightly overused (by Trump), so is it just a default insult (although it might not be the only such default) when he can't think of something more memorable (as dandavis suggests)? And does it correlate with some consistency with the physical appearance of the target? That might tell us that Trump regards his physical height as very important, and that he is willing to contrast himself with others on it, besides his "unmatched wisdom"... – Fizz Nov 12 '19 at 22:28
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    @Fizz That sounds like a perfect example of off-topic as "speculation on internal motivations". I could also see this as "promote or discredit", though I can't decide whether it would be targeting Trump or Bloomberg – divibisan Nov 12 '19 at 22:39
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The domestic political figures insulted as "little" include Adam Schiff at 5'11, Marco Rubio at 5'9 and Michael Bloomberg at 5'8.

Other domestic media figures include: Donny Deutch at 5'10, George Stephanopoulos at 5'5 and Jeff Zucker at 5'6.

While this group of men is certainly not tall, they are not especially short either with an average height of 5'8. In the United States the average height for men is 5'9 putting most of these men within a standard deviation of the norm. While trying to ascribe motive to a person is impossible without knowing them on a personal level, my best guess is that "little" is the best insult he could think of. Another possibility is that at a stated height of 6'3, they all look "little" to him.

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    For reference, 5' 5 is 1.65 meters. – JJJ♦ Nov 13 '19 at 1:38
  • How does this answer the question? You only prove that "Height" - out of the many possibilities - isn't the correct one. – Sjoerd Nov 13 '19 at 6:22
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    So add a different answer if you don't like mine. – SurpriseDog Nov 13 '19 at 14:50
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    At least regarding Schiff, Trump was more explicit recently, clearly mocking his physical appearance when using "little": "Little Shifty Schiff. He's got the little 10-inch neck. 'What size shirts do you need, Adam?' 'I wear a size nine.' Nine. He will not make the LSU football team, that I can tell you." – Fizz Nov 16 '19 at 22:50

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