{"id":36,"date":"2026-05-19T20:10:49","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T20:10:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=36"},"modified":"2026-05-19T20:10:49","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T20:10:49","slug":"the-neuroscience-of-visibly-delighted-trumps-penchant-for-props-expert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=36","title":{"rendered":"The neuroscience of ‘visibly delighted’ Trump\u2019s penchant for props: expert"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

President Donald Trump has a key component of his communication style: he loves using props. On Tuesday, for example, while giving a tour of his ballroom construction site, he did so while holding a posterboard image of a columned building. While it may be easy to dismiss this tendency as a mere part of his instinct for showmanship, as HuffPost explains, \u201cThere\u2019s actually real rhetorical power behind the objects (and people) Trump chooses to employ as props. And there\u2019s neuroscience to back it up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more DC insiders predict Trump\u2019s slush fund will stoke MAGA violence in 2028<\/a><\/p>\n

According to body language and nonverbal communication expert Patti Wood, props are a key aspect of \u201cpersuasion theory,\u201d helping alert the parts of the audience\u2019s brain that interpret relevant information. As she explained, \u201cObjects affect the brain in a totally different way \u2014 specifically the limbic brain, that primitive brain. That increases the speed in which we process it. If someone sees a prop, it hits their limbic brain, they\u2019ll see it faster and it hits them emotionally.\u201d Hitting those emotions allows a message to reach audiences in a way that is more \u201cvisceral,\u201d regardless of the presence of facts or logic. <\/p>\n

As HuffPost notes, Trump is hardly the first politician to use props. Ted Cruz famously read Dr. Seuss on the Senate floor in an effort to stave off a vote on the Affordable Care Act. President Barack Obama drank a glass of filtered water from Flint, Michigan, to prove that efforts to clean up contamination were underway. And congressional leaders love using what they call “floor charts” during hearings and debates. <\/p>\n

But HuffPost asserts that few politicians are quite as enamored by props as Trump, whose prop highlights include the \u201cbinders of ‘Epstein files’ prepared for influencers, riffing with a binder clip while discussing his \u2018365 Wins in 365 Days,\u2019 using a garbage truck to attack Joe Biden over comments he had made in a back-and-forth over racist comments about Puerto Rico, \u2018making fries\u2019 at a McDonalds, and the various miscellaneous photo opps featuring hard paper copies of documents with his signature.\u201d<\/p>\n

And according to Wood, Trump\u2019s use of props is only partly to aid communication. The other reason he so frequently uses them, she claims, is simple: \u201cHe is visibly delighted by them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey know the power of the props, they plan the props and [Trump] likes to see the emotional effect of his presentations. He gets fed by that and that makes him speak better in those moments,\u201d Wood explained. \u201cI can see his [nonverbal communication], he delights and smiles when the props are on the table, when he\u2019s holding a prop. He really enjoys it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Insider: Anger mounting as Trump obsesses on decorating projects as nation burns<\/a><\/p>\n

Sometimes, Trump\u2019s props are less about a specific message and more about building his brand, such as his red hats, blue suit with red tie, or the ear bandages he and his Republican supporters wore in the wake of the 2024 attempt on his life. When he does use them to promote a policy message, however, they can be a useful shorthand for reaching his base. Wood noted his use of large and small Tic Tac containers while campaigning as a simple means of illustrating shrinkflation. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe complex concept was inflation. He was saying he was going to reduce inflation, so you don\u2019t have the small container of Tic Tacs,\u201d said Wood. \u201cIt makes it easier for even someone who can\u2019t read to comprehend what Trump\u2019s saying because it simplifies it so much.\u201d<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t matter that the Tic Tac example was an oversimplification that had less to do with explaining the reality of the concept than it did with communicating a memorable assertion: There was a problem, and Trump would fix it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe prop becomes a replacement for facts,\u201d Wood explained. \u201cThat\u2019s not a benefit, but it\u2019s a power.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Trump move just put Texas seat in major \u2018jeopardy\u2019: GOP senator<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump has a key component of his communication style: he loves using props. On Tuesday, for example, while giving a tour of his ballroom construction site, he did so while holding a posterboard image of a columned building. 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