'Klutzy': Body language expert pinpoints a change in Trump's nonverbal behavior

President Donald Trump’s body language was far from dominant when he met with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer this week, according to analysis from the Guardian published Friday. Starmer placed his hand on Trump’s shoulder as he gave him a second state visit from King Charles.

Keir said the invitation was “"truly historic" and "unprecedented."

“Starmer was skating a tricky line,” with his body language, “between matey familiarity and patronising reassurance, which must have been tutored, as he’s not a tactile man. Trump’s body language looked completely untaught, because nobody could teach this. The man has always been incredibly idiosyncratic,” writes Guardian columnist Zoe Williams.

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“Trump, famously, loves trying to dominate with his body language,” Williams adds.

But during the meeting with Starmer, Trump had his hands in something body experts call the “steeple,” where his fingers were together and his palms apart. “This is not uncommon, Elon Musk does it, Angela Merkel did it – but they tend to put them very high, utterly confident. Here you have the president’s, which is a modified steeple, where he loses its strength by pointing it downward,” Joe Navarro, former FBI agent and author of The Dictionary of Body Language told the Guardian.

“It's far from the only cue that he’s unsure or uncomfortable,” Williams writes.

His body language at the White House is often self soothing. “In pictures in the White House, or when he’s surrounded by people, he crosses his arms very tight around himself, and that is a comforting behavior. It’s literally a self-hug. And yet when we see him on The Apprentice, he never did that. You normally don’t expect leaders to be self-hugging. You expect them to have expansive behaviors,” Navarro said.

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Trump usually tries to appear dominant with his body language, like when he exchanged a “tight handshake,” Navarro said,” with former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during his first time in office. They had some “awkward exchanges.”

“It reminds me of some of the garbage that was being peddled about establishing dominance in the 1980s. You’ll be superior if you squeeze tight, or if your hand is on top, or if you bring them closer to your chest. There is nothing either empirical or scientific that says that playing hand jiu-jitsu makes the other person respect you more. What it does do, particularly in cultures that are context rich, it makes you look amateurish,” he said.

Another example include when he held then-British Prime Minister Theresa May’s hand and when he walked in front of the Queen. ““That’s not a little faux pas, that’s a major faux pas,” Navarro said, calling the moves “klutzy.”

Trump looks “demure” in a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. “Look at the arm swing on Putin versus the very stoic, demure, arms at the side, head low behaviors of Trump,” Navarro said. “I could hardly believe my eyes. It matters. We are primates. We evolved from primates. You don’t have to be told who the leader is. If you’re the silverback, you stand proud, you stand tall, you have the behaviors of confidence. That is nowhere to be seen with Trump,” Navarro said.

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