On Trump's penis envy

Robert Reich
October 21, 2024

Republican presidential nominee former U.S. President Donald Trump smiles as South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem gestures during a town hall campaign event in Oaks, Pennsylvania, U.S., October 14, 2024. REUTERS/David Muse TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

On Saturday, Trump opened his speech at the airport in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, with 12 minutes of reminiscences about the golfer Arnold Palmer, who grew up in Latrobe and for whom its airport is named.

As The New York Times reported, “His monologue culminated in lewd remarks about the size of Mr. Palmer’s penis.”

What historians may term Trump’s “penis speech” — the climax, as it were, of his final days seeking the votes of Americans to put him back in the Oval Office — was actually far more revealing about Trump than were his “lewd remarks.”

Trump began his 12-minute encomium by extolling Palmer’s talent and physical prowess. “He had no money, just had a lot of talent and a lot of muscle — he was a strong guy.”

Trump spoke of Palmer’s father carrying sod at the local golf club, which led to the father and son borrowing members’ clubs and playing golf together late at night. “And then his son got older, and stronger, and then he got stronger, and stronger,” Trump said.

Trump’s narcissism is so malignant that he’s unaware of revealing his deep insecurities. In talking about Arnold Palmer becoming stronger and stronger relative to Arnold’s father, Trump was talking about himself gaining strength over his own father, Fred — a disciplinarian who spent hundreds of millions of dollars financing his son’s career and taught him that his choice was to dominate those around him or lose.

“The only thing that Trump ever cared about was he had this thing: ‘I’ve got to win. Teach me how to win,’” George White, a former classmate of Trump’s at the New York Military Academy who spent years around both father and son, said in an interview.

On Saturday in Latrobe, Trump recounted that the Palmers — father and son — were finally able to save enough money for Arnold to buy his own golf clubs, but the clubs “weren’t strong enough. Arnold was breaking them. He’d swing a regular club, and it’d break the hell out of it, because he was so powerful.” According to Trump, this required that the father and son continue borrowing golf clubs from other people.


That’s pretty much what Fred and Donald did in the 1970s, except they didn’t borrow; they stole.

In 1973, the Justice Department alleged that Trump Management, Inc. — including its 27-year-old president, Donald, and chairman, Fred — violated the Fair Housing Act of 1968 in 39 of its properties. The company quoted different rental terms and conditions to prospective tenants based on their race and made false “no vacancy” statements to Black people seeking to rent. Trump employees secretly marked the applications of Black people with codes, such as “C” for “colored,” according to documents filed in federal court. The employees directed Black people away from buildings with mostly white tenants, steering them toward properties that had many Black tenants.

Trump settled out of court in 1975, but three years later the Trump Organization was back in court for violating the terms of the settlement.


At Saturday’s rally in Latrobe, Trump noted that Arnold Palmer would “use very stiff-shafted clubs, very strong — for those of you that aren’t golfers, that’s for like good golfers, with power. Very stiff-shafted.”

Oh, please.

What did the younger Palmer do with those very strong, stiff-shafted clubs? According to Trump, he went on to win high school championships. “He’d beat them so badly. He loved beating them, even though he was a nice guy, but he was tough.”


For Trump, it’s always been about beating them. Everything in his life has been a zero-sum game in which either he wins or his opponents win. He cannot abide losing; losing would threaten his masculinity.

“Arnold Palmer was all man,” Trump said. “And I say that in all due respect to women, and I love women. But this guy, this guy, this is a guy that was all man. This man was strong and tough.”

For Trump, to be a man means to be strong and tough, and win battles.


What’s the tell that predicts whether these male warriors will win?

“I refuse to say it,” Trump continued on Saturday in Latrobe, teasing his audience with what he seemed to be helpless to avoid saying, “but when [Arnold Palmer] took showers with the other pros, they came out of there — they said ‘Oh my god, that’s unbelievable.’”

Arnold Palmer’s daughter told The Sporting News in 2018 that the golf legend was so incensed by what he saw as Trump’s lack of civility that he made noises of disgust when Trump appeared on the television “like he couldn’t believe the arrogance and crudeness of this man who was the nominee of the political party that he believed in.” She added, “My dad had no patience for people who demean other people in public. He was appalled by Trump’s lack of civility and what he began to see as Trump’s lack of character.”

Trump’s obsession with penis size is rooted in insecurity about his virility.

In 2016, he defended his penis size after Senator Marco Rubio, an opponent in that year’s Republican primary, commented on Trump’s supposedly small hands, saying “you know what they say about men with small hands?” leading Trump to publicly “guarantee” there was “no problem” with his penis.

While in office, Trump reportedly phoned then White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham to insist that his penis was not small or toadstool-shaped, as alleged by porn star Stormy Daniels.

For Trump, penis size is a symbol masculinity — which expresses itself in the ability to dominate and subjugate others, as Fred Trump did to him.

Trump has been haunted by fears of being insufficiently masculine and virile. This is the source of his anger. It’s key to understanding his misogyny. It’s at the core of Trumpism. It’s why winning the presidency is more important to him than preserving democracy.

Robert Reich is a professor of public policy at Berkeley and former secretary of labor. His writings can be found at https://robertreich.substack.com/.