President Donald Trump’s reactions at a recent awards ceremony were extremely telling about his true feelings, with one body language expert highlighting all the signs of his “anger and embarrassment” that got caught on live TV.
Read more Biographer says Melania legal battle exposes ‘Trump law in a nutshell’
Trump was in attendance during Friday evening’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner, which was rescheduled after an attempted shooting at the previous attempt to hold the annual event. During the event, CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer presented the Katharine Graham Award for Courage and Accountability to the team of Wall Street Journal reporters for their story relating to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his past connections to Trump, which included the bombshell revelations about the sexually suggestive birthday note the president sent to Epstein.
Trump previously attempted to sue the outlet, owned by major conservative backer Rupert Murdoch, over the story, leading many to note his awkward and frustrated reactions during the presentation of the award.
In a video shared Saturday, Dr. John Paul Garrison, a licensed clinical and forensic psychologist with expertise in body language, broke down the segment moment by moment in order to highlight all of the signs pointing to Trump’s unease.
Early on in the video, Garrison noted Trump’s “classic look of disapproval” as Blitzer introduced the award, something he has pointed out in numerous other past examinations of the president’s body language.
A short time later, as Blitzer is discussing the “thousands of documents” contained in the Epstein files, Trump appeared to look away momentarily.
“It’s because this is too intense. It’s too anger-inducing,” Garrison explained. “He cannot continue to look at Wolf Blitzer because it’s making him mad. So, he looks away to try to get support from someone else. So, right now he’s turning to face [White House Press Secretary] Karoline Leavitt.”
Read more Republicans fuming in ‘frustration’ as McConnell’s health remains a mystery
While he was looking away, Garrison noted that Trump then gave a “half smile,” which appeared to reveal his “contempt, because contempt is the only emotion that’s only on one side of the face.” The psychologist suggested that Trump might have been attempting to hide his feelings of contempt with the smile, but it was still unmistakably there. The president then transitioned to a look of “fake confusion.”
“Now he’s trying to appear confused. He’s feeling awkward,” Garrison explained. “He doesn’t know how to react to something like this. So he’s facing away. He’s looking confused, although not really confused, but trying to feign confusion. So, at this point right here, this is everything he can do to disengage from what’s going on right now because he absolutely does not want to have to sit and listen to this.”
Several more times, Garrison noted how Trump showed looks of disapproval as Blitzer continued to talk. When the address turned to Trump’s $20 billion lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal, Trump then appeared to show a happy expression over something he felt “pride” about, but Garrison suggested that “he’s not actually feeling happy right now, but he’s willing to show a fake smile to draw attention to himself.”
When the reporters were finally brought on-stage, Trump showed various signs of faux-embarrassment and disbelief over the situations, which Garrison said were meant to convey “I can’t believe this just happened to me,” before he moved on to an expression of “tension.”
“What we saw was anger and embarrassment, but he tried to cover it by playing to the audience,” Garrison concluded.
Read more ‘That’s not true’: CNN panel bushwhacks CEO’s sunny economic claims
