Trump’s ‘strange’ body language during meeting with Chinese president said it all, experts say

President Donald Trump met with Chinese President Xi Jinping In South Korea on Thursday for tariff negotiations, the US president later rated it a “12” on a scale of 1 to 10.

However, the handshakes between the leaders sparked a separate conversation when Fox News’ Michelle Backus gushed that the exchange demonstrated Trump’s “control” over the situation.

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“And you can see the way he shakes his hand, President Trump has control of that room and I have a lot of confidence going into this meeting,” Backus said.

Although critics found this adulation to be too much, it raised the question of what body language could really say about the dynamic between the two men. HuffPost spoke to body language experts to better understand what might have been happening during the parts of their conversation we were able to see, and their answers were revealing.

Trump knows how to get into the “position of power,” at least at first.

It’s no secret that appearing powerful is important to Trump, and his efforts were on display at the start of his meeting with Xi.

On the one hand, Trump positioned himself on the left, a coveted “position of power” that gives him the visual “advantage” in photographs, as Traci Brown, a body language expert and behavioral analyst, told HuffPost.

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“Trump is leftist,” Brown said. “That is the position of power, politicians fight for it.”

Trump made an unusual move early on that stood out, according toPatti Woodexpert in body language and non-verbal communication and author of “SNAP: Making the most of first impressions, body language and charisma.” While he performed the “first action” of the handshake (which typically demonstrates the most power), the position of his hands could tell a different story.

“As I watched him shake hands and analyzed it hundreds of times, in the first handshake, it’s interesting that Trump turned around and raised his palm,” Wood said. “That’s usually not their style, because it’s a plea: ‘I have less power, I have my palms up, I am less powerful.'”

Brown also highlights the “palm up” gesture, noting that it can also show a “mentality of welcome and hospitality.”

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As the exchange progressed, Trump continued to employ more power moves that are familiar to him if he maintains his typical body language in these types of exchanges: mainly, moving his counterpart closer to where he wants (and also making other forms of contact) and trying to dictate when the action begins and ends.

“Trump is reaching out to give Jinping a pat on the back,” Brown added. “That may be a show of control: Trump could move Jinping if he wanted to.”

And that physicality is pretty consistent: “Trump does something he does often: He puts (Xi’s) hand in front of his body. So he’s taking a dominant pulling action instead of stopping and giving a normal handshake,” Wood noted.

“He takes her left hand and arm and pats her on the back. There are two symbols: Patting can be an affectionate movement or it can show ‘I’m in charge’… It becomes another sign of dominance to say, ‘I can hit you, and I can hit you on the world stage.'”

Holding the hand for a long time is evident in these photographs, says Wood, and is not traditionally the way these rituals are performed. “Once again, it’s become more standard for Trump, although typically in these situations where world leaders meet on the world stage, with everyone watching, there’s not a handshake that turns into a battle hold.”

The handshake also rejects rituals.

While there are different protocols and cultural differences at play, Wood notes that a handshake typically consists of three to five pumps. And it is very rare for the shaking to continue until journalists start asking questions, which is what happened in the exchange between Trump and Xi.

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“Xi Jinping looks like he’s ready for this to be over. Part of it is that non-verbally, he’s leaning slightly outward, both his shoulder and his head are slightly tilted outward, he’s orienting himself and responding face-to-face with the journalist. Trump is slightly oriented toward Xi Jinping and just holding on,” Wood said. “A normal handshake is an equal distance between two people. But when Trump pulls the hand and holds it in front of him, he’s showing: ‘I’m the one in charge, I’m in control, I’m going to win.'”

Wood, who studies greeting rituals and their symbolic meaning, noted that the handshake ritual is traditionally intended as a gesture of peace. Literally, it is meant to show that you don’t have a weapon in your hand or up your sleeve (that’s what the shake is for). Its objective is to initiate the beginning of the “game” and recognize the equality of conditions between the two opposing parties.

“What Trump is pointing out is the antithesis of the normal handshake, which is equality,” Wood says. “It says, ‘Here we are both safe and here we are both equal.’ Instead of the ritual, this is: ‘I want to show you that I will win, that I have power and I will not let you go.’”

The exchange ends with a less than dominant closer.

While his initial dynamic with Xi points to Trump maintaining his dominance, Wood notes that the post-negotiation handshake could tell a different story.

“After the negotiation, Trump does something I’ve seen him do more often: he whispers in her ear. We all want to know what he’s saying, but what that means symbolically is that they have a secret,” Wood said. “We don’t know what’s true, but symbolically it seems to us that Trump is telling him something. That they have a secret between them.”

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Wood noted that after analyzing hundreds of these exchanges, this is not inherently strange, and often after the ritual of handshakes, leaders part with a laugh, a joke, or a clear moment when the tension has dissipated and they can return to being “themselves” again.

“Usually it’s almost like two friends, a laughing response,” Wood said, “whereas Trump, in that final handshake, has a forced smile.”

From there, the display of dominance also begins to lose its power. One thing to know, Wood says, is that these types of televised meetings between leaders on the world stage are quite formalized. There are people who inform all parties about the protocol and where they should go during the event. They also usually have time to practice or receive that explicit direction.

In Trump’s case, he ended up asking directions and eventually walked Xi to his car.

“Usually they will go down to that neutral point at the bottom of the stairs and go their separate ways,” Wood said. “It’s strange because symbolically it would show less power on Trump’s part. To me, that was strange, and symbolically it seemed like he had less power because he walked to the car and got lost; he just didn’t know where to go.”

“Again, because I’ve read a lot of these: They usually practice ahead of time or are told ahead of time and remember which path to take. So that’s strange. I guess it’s important to say that that’s not normal.”

And that whiny ending, despite all the attempts to cause an explosion, is also notable from a non-verbal communication perspective. Just as the primacy effect makes the first movements more memorable, the recency effect also puts more attention on the final movement.

“We have the primacy effect, the first handshake, and the recency effect is the last handshake,” Wood said. “He tried really hard to look powerful in the initial handshake, and ended up not looking as powerful in the final handshake. The recency effect, the last thing you say or do.”

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