Donald Trump's nuclear button is way bigger than yours
Chris Cillizza
Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large
Updated 1349 GMT (2149 HKT) January 3, 2018
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In this Sept. 3, 2017, image distributed on Monday, Sept. 4, 2017, by the North Korean government, North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un holds a meeting of the ruling party's presidium. North Korea claimed a "perfect success" for its most powerful nuclear test so far, a further step in the development of weapons capable of striking anywhere in the United States. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)
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This photo from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) taken on December 23, 2017 and released on December 24, 2017 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un during the 5th Conference of the Workers' Party of Korea Cell Chairpersons.
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PAJU, SOUTH KOREA - JANUARY 08: A sunrise is seen through a barbed-wire fence at the Imjingak, near the Demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating South and North Korea on January 8, 2016 in Paju, South Korea. South Korea announced on January 7th that it would resume the broadcasts from loudspeakers placed along the border, criticizing the North in response to its nuclear test. In August, 2015, when South Korean soldiers were maimed by land mines in the DMZ, South Korea started the loudspeaker broadcasts and the North threatened to attack the speakers. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)
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Police accuse man of acting as N. Korean agent
north korea missile launch newton_00000629.jpg
Watch North Korea's huge new missile launch
The second most powerful official after Kim Jong Un has not been seen in a couple of months. Has General Hwang Pyong So been purged.. or even executed?
North Korean high-ranking official missing
In this Sept. 3, 2017, image distributed on Monday, Sept. 4, 2017, by the North Korean government, North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un holds a meeting of the ruling party's presidium. North Korea claimed a "perfect success" for its most powerful nuclear test so far, a further step in the development of weapons capable of striking anywhere in the United States. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)
Kim Jong Un: What we know about him
Tillerson: We do not accept N. Korea's path
Why does North Korea keep launching ICBMs?
How much damage can North Korea's weapons do?
North Korea's regime has "succeeded in making a more developed nuke," according to state news agency KCNA. During a visit to the country's Nuclear Weapons Institute "he watched an H-bomb to be loaded into new ICBM," KCNA added.
The weapon that makes N. Korea more dangerous
lead jake tapper trump north korea live_00000000.jpg
Trump to Kim: My nuclear button is bigger than yours
north korea kim jung un new year speech hancocks lklv_00005209.
Kim Jong Un delivers New Year's address
This photo from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) taken on December 23, 2017 and released on December 24, 2017 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un during the 5th Conference of the Workers' Party of Korea Cell Chairpersons.
North Korea may test missile in new year
The Lighthouse Winmore, chartered by Taiwanese company Billions Bunker Group Corp., is seen at sea off South Korea's Yeosu port on December 29, 2017.
South Korea briefly seized and inspected a Hong Kong-registered ship in November for transferring oil products to a North Korean vessel and breaching UN sanctions, a foreign ministry official said on December 29.
China accused of letting oil into North Korea
Images of the North Korea missile launch on November 28 taken from Rodong Sinmun, North Korea's official newspaper.
Officials: Signs NK is prepping missile launch
ghost ships of NK watson pkg_00001324.jpg
North Korean 'ghost ships' washing up in Japan
North Korean soldiers (R) look at the South side while US Vice President Mike Pence (not pictured) visits the truce village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) on the border between North and South Korea on April 17, 2017.
What it's really like to be inside North Korea
PAJU, SOUTH KOREA - JANUARY 08: A sunrise is seen through a barbed-wire fence at the Imjingak, near the Demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating South and North Korea on January 8, 2016 in Paju, South Korea. South Korea announced on January 7th that it would resume the broadcasts from loudspeakers placed along the border, criticizing the North in response to its nuclear test. In August, 2015, when South Korean soldiers were maimed by land mines in the DMZ, South Korea started the loudspeaker broadcasts and the North threatened to attack the speakers. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)
North Korean soldier defects across the DMZ
Washington (CNN)Size matters.
If you were looking for a two-word slogan to describe Donald Trump's life, that would be a fitting one. In everything -- from the size of his buildings to the size of his genitals to the size of his nuclear arsenal, Trump is totally and completely obsessed with being the biggest and the best.
Witness his tweet Tuesday night directed at North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un:
"North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the 'Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times.' Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!"
"Much bigger & more powerful." "My Button works."
If you don't see what Trump is going for there, then we need to have a side conversation about the birds and the bees. This is a measuring contest provoked by the President of the United States against an unstable dictator pursuing a nuclear capacity.
It's absolutely stunning given the stakes: Nuclear war/annihilation. At the same time, it's an entirely predictable tactic from Trump given what he we know about him.
Let's remember that in the 2016 Republican primary process, Trump got into a pissing contest -- almost literally -- with Florida Sen. Marco Rubio about genital size.
President alone has power to order nuclear action
President alone has power to order nuclear action 01:53
At a rally in early March, Rubio said this of Trump: "He's like 6-foot-2, which is why I don't understand why his hands are the size of someone who is 5-foot-2. And you know what they say about men with small hands? You can't trust them."
Days later -- at a GOP primary debate -- Trump made sure to address the Rubio allegation.
"Look at those hands, are they small hands?" Trump said while displaying his mitts. "And he referred to my hands -- 'if they're small, something else must be small.' I guarantee you there's no problem. I guarantee."
I guarantee you there's no problem.
Trump's obsession with size is evident in ways large and small -- ahem -- throughout his life.
Remember how he had the biggest inauguration crowd ever? Or how his tax cut was the biggest in history? Or how the ratings for "Saturday Night Live" when Trump made a guest appearance were the biggest in years? Or how Mar-a-Lago is the best club in the world? Or how "The Apprentice" was the biggest TV hit in history? Or how he actually had the tallest building in downtown Manhattan -- on September 11, 2001, following the terror attacks that brought down the World Trade Center? (Yes, that actually happened.)
There's dozens more examples just like these, but you get the point. In Trump's mind, the first, second and third most important measures of success are size. Everything he is involved with must be the biggest, the tallest, the most well-attended, the most expensive, the best.
A bit of armchair psychology would suggest that relentless focus on size is born of insecurity.
Remember that Trump has always viewed himself as an outsider, scorned by the cool kids. His father was a successful developer, but not in Manhattan, where the big boys played. Trump went into Manhattan and built right in the heart of it, but the major players in the city's power structure didn't like him or let him into their clubs. When he came to Washington in 2011 considering a potential political career, the establishment laughed at him during the White House Correspondents Dinner.
In Trump's mind, he is always on the outside looking in. And he is motivated by a desire to stick it to the elites who have shunned him his entire life.
Trump launches Twitter tirade first day back
Trump launches Twitter tirade first day back 02:32
The way to do that -- in Trump's mind -- is to always one-up whoever is challenging him. If you build a 95-story skyscraper, he'll find a way to build a 96- story one. If you got 50,000 retweets, he'll want to get 100,000. And, if you have a nuclear button ready to push on your desk, well you can sure as hell bet Trump has a bigger and better nuclear button on his desk.
Trump's size obsession was mildly amusing when he was a private citizen. The man who always had to have the biggest toy.
But, as President, his compulsive need to not only have the biggest and the best everything but to shove it in the face of world leaders that he has the biggest and the best everything takes on an entirely different feeling -- one of uneasiness about whether the President of the United States grasps what his size contest obsession means in a world of nuclear weapons.
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