What to make of Trump's body language during his Gulf trip

Behavioural scientist interprets US President's gestures as sign of 'cultural respect'

Videos from US President Donald Trump’s trip to the Gulf are still making the rounds on social media. Seemingly everyone, including body language experts, have an opinion.

“What I did notice is he's a little more subdued in these videos than you often see,” said Abbie Marono, a behavioural scientist who has also occasionally given training to entities including the US Secret Service, FBI, Department of Homeland Security and local law enforcement agencies across the US.

Ms Marono compared Mr Trump’s mostly stoic and reserved face and hand gestures during visit to Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar to his usual interactions with US reporters and his appearances at various events.

US President Donald Trump reflects on UAE trip

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“I think it's a cultural respect issue,” she said. Middle East "culture is more reserved, and although Trump still retained some of his typical body language, it was more subtle.”

She also said that during Mr Trump’s interactions with both Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and UAE President Sheikh Mohamed, his body language showed respect while also maintaining confidence and comfort.

“They're equally faced forward and orienting, towards each other” she explained, after looking at videos of Mr Trump standing next to Prince Mohammed and Sheikh Mohamed during the separate visits.

“I thought this was really interesting, because in his debate with Kamala Harris, every time she spoke, he wouldn't orient towards her. He wouldn't face her when she was speaking, and that’s a big sign of disrespect.”

A particular moment during Mr Trump’s UAE trip stood out to Ms Marono: when he sat and spoke to President Sheikh Mohamed.

Abbie Marono says even the most seasoned politicians have moments where their body language reveals what they are thinking. Photo: Abbie Marono

To the untrained eye, the interaction may have seemed unassuming, but to Ms Marono, who wrote The Upper Hand: Mastering persuasion and getting what you want with social engineering, Mr Trump’s consistent preference of making a triangle with his hands while sitting spoke volumes.

“It's very clear that he was either feeling very confident, because that steeple is a sign of confidence, or he was purposely projecting confidence,” she added.

“That is a gesture that we all do know is associated with power now, because it's so widely talked about, there's no way that his team aren't aware.”

She said Mr Trump’s body language showed he was confident upon his arrival in the UAE.

“It was a very comfortable interaction and it didn't appear there was any political, political unrest or any conflict between them,” she said. “It's not exactly the kind of comfort you'd see between friends, but it was a calm and controlled comfort.”

She compared his interactions with Gulf leaders to his interactions with various world leaders during the US leader's first term, and said that she feels he made the decision to curtail his usually gregarious handshakes where he was known to pull people in and maintain a grip.

“He presented dominant but not aggressive, whereas previously he has presented dominant and aggressive,” she said. “There has either been coaching or growth ... there is definitely a change in his purposeful presentation.”

Ms Marono became a professor of psychology at 23 after earning her PhD, and currently serves as director of education at Social-Engineer, LLC, a firm specialising in behaviour analysis.

The US granted her an O-1 non-immigrant visa, which, according to the US State Department means that she is a top 1 per cent expert in her field.

Ms Marono said that although world leaders are often seasoned with advice from sometimes hundreds of consultants related to body language and verbal communication, inevitably she can always find clues from in certain moments that can reveal bigger truths.

“Even if you are perfectly coached, you're still human and you're still reacting,” she explained. “Just look at the various political debates that take place, you see leaders get emotionally reactive because even with all the coaching in the world, when you care about something and you’re passionate about it, it's really hard not to react.”

Yet in all her experience, she finds one US politician to be among the most difficult to get a read on, former president Barack Obama.

“He is almost always perfectly presented and doesn’t tend to react a lot,” she said, reflecting on his eight years in the White House.

“I feel that he's very deeply coached, that his non-verbals feel so authentic that it's so hard to identify when they’re genuine or artificial.”