# Trump can't make a fist **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [April 25, 2024, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-cant-make-a-fist/1000725 "2024-04-25T05:45:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2024, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-cant-make-a-fist/1000725/1 "2024-04-25T05:45:31Z")
For a guy who uses this gesture as much as he does, I would think he would know how to make a fist: [![](https://dims.apnews.com/dims4/default/fb75573/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3000x2246+0+0/resize/599x448!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstorage.googleapis.com%2Fafs-prod%2Fmedia%2Fc392927c729047019d303e2363589974%2F3000.jpeg) ](https://dims.apnews.com/dims4/default/fb75573/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3000x2246+0+0/resize/599x448!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstorage.googleapis.com%2Fafs-prod%2Fmedia%2Fc392927c729047019d303e2363589974%2F3000.jpeg) His thumb is pressed against his index finger - nobody who knows how to make a fist does that. Also his fingers are not clenched enough. Maybe he can’t do it right because of his tiny hands? ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2024, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-cant-make-a-fist/1000725/2 "2024-04-25T06:08:29Z")
A deformation from holding a golf club too often? ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2024, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-cant-make-a-fist/1000725/3 "2024-04-25T06:35:56Z")
Clearly he can’t open his mouth right either. Doesn’t stop him from lying. He seems to drag his feet in a shuffle occasionally. I think its an anomaly. Maybe birth defect? ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2024, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-cant-make-a-fist/1000725/4 "2024-04-25T06:45:14Z")
Okay. This might be the right place to ponder something that’s been nagging at me for awhile. When I look at older clips of Trump, he was always pursing his lips into a rectangular shape that made me think of a semi-robotic octopus sucker. Now his mouth never makes that shape. Did he train himself out of doing it? Is he old enough that his lips are too lax to make the corners? - - - - Did he get botox injections to prevent it? His lips used to just pop into that shape. No more. Where did it go? ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2024, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-cant-make-a-fist/1000725/5 "2024-04-25T06:50:26Z")
I briefly saw it today. He was bitching about being gagged. I think when he gets worked up into a tizzy he loses his training. Maybe his lawyers have him wear a ball-gag after court. Now for typing finger cuffs. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Librarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_librarian/32/402_2.png) [@The\_Librarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Librarian)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2024, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-cant-make-a-fist/1000725/6 "2024-04-25T06:55:15Z")
You mean US judges can’t make a fist against Trump? Donnie is doing just fine. Ignoring gag orders with impunity. Not paying jack-shit for any bonds with impunity. It is definitely not Trump who’s looking like he can’t make a fist. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2024, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-cant-make-a-fist/1000725/7 "2024-04-25T07:15:35Z")
We’re being literal, here, not poetic. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2024, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-cant-make-a-fist/1000725/8 "2024-04-25T08:48:12Z")
He has short fingers. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2024, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-cant-make-a-fist/1000725/9 "2024-04-25T09:35:22Z")
Also, I have heard him described as a “vulgarian”. The real punchline of the joke is that Trump has long taken umbrage over the claim that he has diminutive digits, but either does not know or care what a vulgarian is, thereby aptly demonstrating that he is one. As for not being able to form a fist, Trump is do shockingly inept at such a wide range of basic human functions both physical and mental that I don’t understand why the tinfoil hat legions haven’t declared him a lizard person, or how he has become so revered as a businessman by failing forward so many times that he can only get loans from shady Russian mobsters. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![colinfred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colinfred/32/21338_2.png) [@colinfred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/colinfred)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2024, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-cant-make-a-fist/1000725/10 "2024-04-25T09:36:47Z")
I read the OP and instinctively made a fist. It looks like Trump’s ---
**Author:** ![Mops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mops/32/16494_2.png) [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2024, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-cant-make-a-fist/1000725/11 "2024-04-25T09:47:25Z")
FWIW if I made a fist for raising as a gesture it would look very much like Trump’s in the picture. Only if I intended to punch someone I’d tighten the fist (clench the fingers, press thumb against middle finger). ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2024, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-cant-make-a-fist/1000725/12 "2024-04-25T10:06:39Z")
You have my vote. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2024, 10:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-cant-make-a-fist/1000725/13 "2024-04-25T10:08:36Z")
Maybe he is just preparing to jerk a guy off. [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/GKOMavMPpUM/hq2.jpg "Trump shows us how he would jerk off two guys at once") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKOMavMPpUM) ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2024, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-cant-make-a-fist/1000725/14 "2024-04-25T10:47:20Z")
His hand is such a different color than his face in that (op) picture that it looks like he’s got a puppet and is doing a ventriloquist routine. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2024, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-cant-make-a-fist/1000725/15 "2024-04-25T11:56:40Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > As for not being able to form a fist, Trump is do shockingly inept at such a wide range of basic human functions both physical and mental that I don’t understand why the tinfoil hat legions haven’t declared him a lizard person You mean like that creepy forced “smile” of his? ---
**Author:** ![JakeRS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3ab097/32.png) [@JakeRS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JakeRS)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2024, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-cant-make-a-fist/1000725/16 "2024-04-25T12:12:49Z")
Trump can’t make a fist and the person who was elected by the majority of educated urban Americans can’t make a single coherent sentence without calling the pope an NBA player, confusing countries, shaking hands with invisible people and so on. It’s astonishing how much opponents of Trump are tunnel visioned and every second thread is Trump this, Trump that, yet the senile ghostbuster might as well start WW3 and the democrats will still be obsessed with Trump, rather than replacing equally incompetent people in their own ranks. This should go without saying, but since it needs to be drawn: being against a senile delusional grandpa from the Democratic party doesn’t mean someone is supporting the same thing from the opposite side, there’s probably a million better and smarter candidates in both parties, yet why choose someone actually competent to go against Trump, when you can have someone who should be in a nursing home. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2024, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-cant-make-a-fist/1000725/17 "2024-04-25T12:15:15Z")
---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2024, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-cant-make-a-fist/1000725/18 "2024-04-25T12:17:06Z")
@beowulff, This really isn’t P&E material? Would you like me to reopen it in the Pit? Someone flagged it for such and they’re correct. This is pretty much a mocking/ranting thread. Too Political for MPSIMS or IMHO so probably best for The Pit. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2024, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-cant-make-a-fist/1000725/19 "2024-04-25T16:03:13Z")
With beowulff’s permission, reopened in the Pit. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2024, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-cant-make-a-fist/1000725/20 "2024-04-25T16:09:03Z")
I automatically make the “punch” formation but it’s a reflex. It sounds trite but it’s true that martial arts training is meant to create muscle memory. Even though it has been decades and at my age I’d almost surely injure myself trying to actually do any martial arts today (without some extensive and careful stretching first at least). I tried putting my fist in the same configuration that his is, and it feels wrong. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-cant-make-a-fist/1000725.md?page=2)