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The Mystery of Trump’s Bizarrely Long Ties Has Finally Been Solved

Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images

Donald Trump has had a confounding relationship with his ties, from the scotch-taped to the infamously, strangely lengthy. While the jury’s still out on why he’s yet to just buy a simple tie clip, we finally have an answer to the question that has plagued many: Why does Trump wear such giant ties?

In former New Jersey governor Chris Christie’s forthcoming memoir, Let Me Finish, he says that Trump apparently thinks the long garment has a slimming effect on one’s body. According to The Guardian, which obtained an early copy of the book, Christie writes that during the 2016 presidential election, Trump advised him to wear longer ties so that it would make him appear thinner.

This was apparently not the first time the former reality-TV host and current president had berated Christie about his weight: Christie also wrote in his book that Trump once told him that he needed to lose weight during a dinner in 2005, insisting that “you gotta look better to be able to win” in politics. This pretty much aligns with what we know about Trump’s political priorities.

Fashion experts tend to disagree with Trump’s tie advice: GQ says the tip of a man’s tie should fall right in the middle of his waistband or his belt. As Esquire put it, a garment as lengthy as the style Trump prefers is “type of territory to put him in danger of splashback or getting fabric caught in his fly,” but Trump seems to have eschewed that particular piece of fashion etiquette.

If anything, at least we’ve now solved the mystery that launched a thousand memes.

Now We Know Why Trump Always Wears Such Long Ties