Why Trump is attacking Vanity Fair and Anna Wintour on Twitter

President Trump took a break from promoting his administration’s successes against ISIS and MS-13 on Twitter to slam Hillary Clinton, Vanity Fair magazine, and longtime Vogue editor Anna Wintour (who is not, as his tweet seems to suggest, the editor of Vanity Fair):

There’s a lot to unpack in this tweet, one of a flurry the commander-in-chief sent out Thursday morning.

It all begins with a video that Hive, Vanity Fair’s politics and business section, posted over the weekend that gave some New Year’s advice to Hillary Clinton.

In the video, the Hive’s editors, toasting with glasses of champagne, offer Clinton some suggestions for possible New Year’s resolutions that include writing a sequel to her campaign memoir What Happened, taking up hobbies like improv or knitting or “literally anything that will keep you from running again,” and putting away “the James Comey voodoo doll.”

But the video’s jokes didn’t land for all those who viewed the video, and some interpreted the tone of the clip as sexist or anti-feminist.

Including a former Clinton adviser:

Vanity Fair made a similar video about President Trump, which also lobbed a few cheap shots (“get a new haircut”), and at least two others for those in the White House orbit: White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and economic adviser Gary Cohn.

But the Clinton video sparked outrage, and Vanity Fair eventually apologized for the post on Wednesday, saying, “It was an attempt at humor and we regret that it missed the mark.” (Vox reached out to Vanity Fair for further details, and will update if we hear back.)

Then Trump became a one-man backlash to the backlash. He ripped Vanity Fair for “bending over backwards in apologizing for the minor hit they took at Crooked H.” He then took a swipe at Anna Wintour, saying she “was all set to be Amb to Court of St James’s & a big fundraiser for CH, is beside herself in grief & begging for forgiveness!”

Ambassador to the Court of St. James is the formal title for the US ambassador to the United Kingdom (and Bermuda). Wintour, who did support Clinton and Barack Obama, is the editor-in-chief of Vogue, not Vanity Fair, though she is also the artistic director of Condé Nast, which publishes both magazines. Trump is likely referring to the rumors, which first percolated during the Obama administration, that she might be named ambassador to the UK — something he was also aware of:

Or, the shorter version: 2017 is going out on a note of still being 2017.

Trump really has a thing about Vanity Fair

Trump has nursed a grudge against Vanity Fair since long before he became president, though it mostly stemmed from his lasting feud with the publication’s longtime editor, Graydon Carter. Carter stepped down this year, replaced by Radhika Jones, who took over last month and unwittingly sparked a mini internet controversy of her own.

Carter and Trump first clashed during the 1980s, when Trump was still just a real estate mogul and New York tabloid favorite. Carter described Trump as having “hands small and neatly groomed” in a 1984 GQ profile, and most famously, in Spy Magazine in 1988 he satirically called Trump a “short-fingered vulgarian.” Carter, in 2015, said he wrote the insult to drive Trump “a little bit crazy.” The dig was revived by Marco Rubio on the campaign trail in the GOP primary, which eventually led to a surreal moment in which Trump defended his hand size on the debate stage.

Trump has voiced his disdain for the publication — and its then-editor, Carter — quite a lot in the years since he joined Twitter. Here are a few highlights:

His most recent jab came last December, after his electoral victory. Vanity Fair had published a brutal takedown of Trump Grill:

An apology from Vanity Fair — directed at his other favorite target, Clinton — was seemingly too much to resist.

Will you join us?

Our biggest supporters are our readers — and we’re so grateful to everyone who has made a contribution during our September campaign. We’re less than 1,000 contributions away from reaching our goal for the month, which in turn will allow us to say yes more often when our incredible journalists come to us with questions they want to answer and projects they want to pursue. Will you make a contribution before the month ends and support our policy coverage through 2024 and beyond?

One-Time Monthly Annual

$5/month

$10/month

$25/month

$50/month

Other

$

Yes, I'll give $5/month

Yes, I'll give $5/month

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via