In my human behavior analysis, I consider the circumstances, what the "Normal Baseline" would be for someone to do, and how far the person I am reading is from that expected, natural baseline for someone to do in the video I am analyzing.
Typically, people would use their child's name when mentioning or telling a story about their child's success and or other linguistic and nonverbal means to emphasize their closeness and love for their child. The name brings them closer. When they don't use the name, it could indicate "Distancing." They can indicate they are distant emotionally from that person or wish to do to circumstances they want to distance themselves from them. For example, working on one of my first big media stories, I analyzed a mother being interviewed by the media after she reported her son missing. In the interview, She never mentioned her son's names and gave no details of what they looked like or their personalities. Along with other tells, this indicated that she wanted to distance herself from her sons when it would have been normal and natural to want to talk about them in detail and use their names to bring them close emotionally. I knew after that brief interview that she knew they were dead, and she had most likely murdered them or had a hand in their deaths.
In my reads, I look at and listen to the nonverbal communication and the words they use. The analysis of words for indications or things like deceit, personality type, and personality disorders is called Linguistic Analysis or Forensic Statement Analysis.
Here is an example of an indication of personality type in Trump. When speaking in public, Trump rarely speaks about his children; if he does, he seldom uses their names. He uses pronouns like she or him or the general relationship terms with ownership such as MY son or MY daughter, striking on the word MY vocally to emphasize his ownership. He also doesn't use endearments in reference to his children, such as," My dear son.
"He occasionally uses inflationary descriptions after he mentions them, such as, "My son, who is very smart." This kind of reference to his son appears on the surface to show he is proud of his son. But in the absence of his son's name, there is no use of endearments such as "Dear" or specific details indicating personal knowledge of his son's life, such as, "My son is so smart, he just aced his chem finals." It indicates a need for Trump to make himself look good by association, inflating his worth by having a smart son.
Another linguistic indication of closeness is the placement of the loved one in their story. When we find someone valuable, their name tends to come at the beginning of the story to show we find them important and give them priority. So if someone is going to talk about his much-loved son, they would start the conversation with a reference to them, such as, "My son Barron is graduating from Oxbridge Academy on Friday, and he is such a great student, with A's in Science. and would love to be there and see his face as he accepts his diploma." With this set of statements, the son comes first in the story, with his name and details. Now, Trump is a public figure so he might omit the school's name for security reasons, but he could still include details about his son.
I am careful in my reads not to analyze children for the media, but I will analyze a public figure's personality and their relationship with their children.
Outside the courtroom yesterday, Trump said:
We had some amazing things happen today. As you know, my son is graduating from high school. It looks like the Judge will not let me go to the graduation of my son, who's worked very very hard and he is a great student.
On the surface, it appears that Trump is showing frustration at missing the graduation and pride in his son. But let's look closer.
Trump's success in the courtroom comes first. Then he says, "My son," using a distancing pronoun rather than using his son's name, which linguistically would have indicated a desire to be close to his son.
Trump then goes back to his own victimhood, "…the judge won't let me go…." Rather than a natural empathetic focus on how this will affect his son, such as, "I won't be able to be there for my son on his big day.." He uses the impersonal pronoun, saying, "My son again emphasizes the word My vocally, and he doesn't give any details, just general statements, "Who has worked very, very hard…he is a great student." All this indicates that he is not that close to his son, and the story is of his victimhood instead of his son's loss of his presence at the graduation.
By the way, Trump has never attended the graduation ceremony of any of his children.