Graydon Carter, the Vanity Fair editor who once dubbed President Donald Trump a "short-fingered vulgarian," has penned a blistering column calling the nation's 45th commander in chief a "preening narcissist" who is now the "most ridiculed man on the planet."
"Trump may be a joke, but the chaos and destructive forces around him are not. If he can cause this much havoc during his first few months in office, imagine what the country and the world will look like at the end of four years," Carter wrote Wednesday on VanityFair.com
"That Trump's supporters continue to line up behind him remains a mystery. For the Republican leadership — the Vichy Republicans, as they have been labeled — their collaboration will bear a stiff price down the road.
"As for the president's followers out in the country, their air, their water, their national parks, their pensions, and their health care are all in jeopardy from planned legislation and from regulatory rollbacks already in place."
Carter said he understood "the desire to effect dramatic change in Washington." But, he added, "this is like being frustrated with your doctor and calling in the man who sold you aluminum siding to handle your physical."
Carter and Trump have had a long-running battle dating back to the 1980s when the now-defunct satirical magazine Spy, which was co-founded by Carter and Kurt Andersen, referred to the billionaire developer as a "short-fingered vulgarian."
Last December, Trump tweeted out a message calling Vanity Fair "dead" and Carter a "no talent" after the magazine was critical of Trump Grill — a steakhouse in Trump Tower — and questioned whether it was the worst restaurant in America.
Carter told NPR last year that the "short-fingered vulgarian" tag has long roiled Trump, who will "send me pictures, tear sheets from magazines … [and] with a gold Sharpie, he'll circle his fingers and in his handwriting say, 'See, not so short.'''
"I know it just gives him absolute fits … I'm sure he wants to just kill me — with those little hands," Carter said.
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