Yesterday US President
Donald Trump and his wife Melania arrived at Ben Gurion International Airport
in Tel Aviv.
As always, the eyes of
the public were watching their every move, and much has been made of a
particular public moment between the couple.
After disembarking
from the plane, the President walks ahead of his wife and holds his hand back
for her to take Melania, however,
swats it away, in what appears to be a display of couple disunity. But what
does this mean?
We asked
body language expert Patti Wood what her opinion is.
Wood believes the First Lady’s action was deliberate: “He
was walking way in front to show his power and putting his hand back to lead
her like a child, her hand went under his and up and out to say ‘No, you can’t
lead me like a child.’”
However it’s also
possible Melania batted her husband away because she was cautious about showing
public affection in Tel Aviv.
The incident could be
a further sign of how the Trump’s relationship has changed since becoming the
First Couple.
Wood points out that before the residency, she thinks
their relationship was “high contact,” and “highly sexualised, with
him touching intimate zones of her body in public freely and easily, typically
as he smiled and even gloated.”
In the past few months, however, we’ve
seen Trump often powering out in front of his wife and leaving her behind. “He wants to be seen as a
president. Not as part of a presidential couple,” Wood explained to The
Independent.
But in February, we
saw the opposite happen: when Melania went to take her husband’s hand, he simply patted
and dropped it, suggesting he didn’t want to hold hands.
Wood believes, on the whole, that Trump is calling the
shots when it comes to their public image: “He is determining how they will
present themselves.
“She tries to hold his hand at times in an affectionate
way, which makes me think that was their normal way of walking. She is used to
affection and often leans it to get it, but we see him turn away or smack her
hand away in an admonishing way.
“There are also several photos where her response to his
behaviour is hurt or anger.”
According to Wood, Melania’s body language around Trump
has changed a lot in the past few months - she used to be “a model married to
someone that desired her,” and her body language was “very loose, open and
comfortable in her own skin.”
But now, Wood says Melania has become someone “whose
shoulders go down, whose mouth turns down, who gives furtive, down-gazing
looks, and who is tense, tight, small and unhappy.”
In fact, so much has
been made of Melania’s facial expressions that ‘Sad Melania’ has become a meme,
and many people believe she is unhappy in the marriage.
Melania
looks like someone reluctantly serving out a community service sentencing for
making a poor life choice #TrumpTrip
Patti Wood, MA - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com.
