Body language expert pulls back curtain on Melania’s 'control' of Trump

US President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump hold hands as they host a Halloween event at the White House in Washington, DC, US, October 29, 2026. REUTERS/Eric Lee

Body language expert Judi James couldn't help but notice some strange "awkwardness" around the first couple.

Speaking with the Irish Star, James first honed in on a video in which Melania begins to turn to walk back inside the White House, but Trump is holding her hand. He holds on harder to pull her back outside. He then pats the top of their hands.

"Melania appears to have made a seasonal upgrade to her body language here, maybe to celebrate Halloween," said James.

"As she stands with her husband, whose pose is looking a little awkward, with his right arm hanging dully at his side and his body's center of gravity hanging somewhere over the front of his shoes, it's her reaching out an arm to take his hand firmly and when she does it's a full-on 'encasing' gesture with her hand on top in the clasp signaling control and leadership," she said.

James explained that Mrs. Trump not only encases Trump's hand but there was a subtle movement too. She begins gently "stroking it or caressing it with her thumb, which is as strong a display of affection as you will possibly see from her to her husband in public."

The subtlety is important, James explained. It isn't for show, it's her reassuring him or soothing him.

"Melania then tugs at his hand slightly and Trump steps closer to her in an act of obedience. She then waves and smiles as though the closer pose suits her intentions," James continued.

"It's Melania also in a leadership role here as she cues them up to make their exit, stepping back to take her husband indoors," the analyst explained. "He ignores this intentional gesture to lean out and chat to his audience, but he then performs an act of acknowledgment, apology and positive affirmation and praise as he pats Melania's hand more than once as he joins her."

A fashion reporter with the New York Times also noted that Mrs. Trump didn't wear a more traditional first lady outfit in pastels or floral prints. She wore a dark brown suede coat. They called it her own "costume" at the Halloween event.

"Instead of what has become her increasingly clear signature black and white, she was, on this particular occasion, wearing — brown," wrote Vanessa Friedman. "It was perhaps as much of a concession to costume as could be expected, given the image Mrs. Trump has been building in the second term."

That image, she said, is one of a C-suite executive, rather "than the usual soft-power machinations of the first lady."

Lately, she has been expressing her fashion with "strict monochromatic pantsuits and white button-ups — the kind she wore in her official portrait and when she announced last week that she had brokered a cease-fire for a village in Ukraine — rather than the pastels and prints that former first ladies often wore to represent the human side of the presidency."

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