Body language expert deciphered Donald Trump and Melania Trump's relationship
While Donald Trump and Melania are the center of attention, Patti Wood, an expert in body language, analyzed the meaning of their gestures.
No matter how hard we try to control our image, our gestures, tics and facial expressions sometimes say more about our personality and our feelings than a long, meticulously written speech.
Since Donald Trump's inauguration on January 20, his relationship with his wife, Melania Trump, has never stopped talking. In question ? Behavior deemed too authoritarian and indelicate on the part of the president towards the first lady. Some even argue that Melania Trump is trapped in an unhealthy relationship and needs help. A theory that gave birth to the #FreeMelania movement.
Interviewed by Cosmopolitan.com, Patti Wood, an expert in body language analysis, deciphered the gestures of Donald Trump and Melania, and translated what they mean in relation to their relationship.
Dating from Men's Health magazine's 50th anniversary in 2004, this photo was taken just months before Donald Trump proposed to Melania. This is a "very intimate moment interrupted by a bright flash of a camera in what appears to be a dark room. This is a very intimate, if not rather sexual, photo. Donald Trump shows some property, but Melania doesn't seems not relaxed, maybe because of the flash of light in a dark place, "says Patti Wood.
According to the expert, at this moment, Donald and Melania have just kissed and held hands, or are about to do so. "The overlapping bodies show that they are a couple, they are a union, they have a desire to merge" adds the expert, specifying that beyond the intimacy a certain tension seems to exist within the couple.
Taken during a rally during Donald Trump's presidential campaign in February 2016, this photo shows what Patti Wood wants Melania to make a connection with Donald Trump. "She is stretched upwards with both hands. Her mouth is closed, it's not a smile. So it looks more like a desire to connect, rather than an already established connection" explains the expert.
Patti Wood also draws attention to the fact that Melania's hands are straight and her fingers are not curved. So she seems stiff and not relaxed. "I've always seen it as a desire to connect, or maybe even a desire to silence it," she says.
Taken the day after Donald Trump won the presidential election, this photo shows a brief hug shared by the couple on election night at the Midtown Hotel in New York City. If this photo seems rather tender, for Patti Wood it remains above all rigid and formal.
“Melania's arm isn't wrapped around Donald Trump's, and her fingers are spread out instead of gripping his arm. It's a distanced hand placement. It's not normally how you would respond. to a kiss from your husband "she explains.
Beyond the rather touching character of the photo, it is therefore a Melania in the background that Patti Wood sees. "She's holding her chest back, her head and chin are facing out instead of tucked in. It's a cute photo, but she doesn't kiss it." she adds.
But wouldn't this withdrawal be voluntary? Melania had indeed confided that she wanted to behave like a "traditional" first lady, like Betty Ford or Jackie Kennedy were before her. But for Patti Wood, these attitudes are not comparable. "Jackie was just a shy, formal and reserved woman. But not tense. We feel that Melania wants to be reserved, but we have no certainties, because the tension is complex to analyze. But we can see that this tension is a choice, because his attitude is not the same as in the past "explains the expert.
It was from January 20, 2017 (inauguration of Donald Trump) that speculation that Melania was - supposedly - trapped in an unhealthy relationship with Donald Trump began to circulate.
And one of the first elements that motivated this theory concerns the fact that Donald Trump did not wait for Melania to greet Michelle and Barack Obama when he arrived at the White House, leaving her - far behind him - to join them alone.
“He doesn't look back, he doesn't wait for her, he doesn't look for her, and he has decided that he will be presented by himself and not as a unit of couple. As if he said 'I am alone, I am unique, I am president. "It would be a way of showing its power" explains Patti Wood.
But it was after this precise moment (illustrated in the video) that the #FreeMelania movement started. Behind Donald Trump, Melania smiles when he looks at her, then freezes, frowns and looks down when he turns around. But contrary to what the #FreeMelania movement suggests, according to Patti Wood, Melania's attitude is not an oppressed woman, and is in no way related to any contact with Melania on the part of Donald Trump.
"Throughout the inauguration, I was looking for moments of unity, of tenderness, like a little private moment between them," explains the expert. Besides, according to her, "Melania said to herself 'he's looking at me!', Which she had been waiting for a while and what made her smile. Then he looked back and didn't turn around." connected "with her. Which created her facial expression." A feeling that Pati Wood considers "sadness mixed with a little anger, because she didn't get what she wanted".
