Thread by @DrGJackBrown

1/ THREAD: Body Language Analysis No. 4646: Donald Trump's Oval Office Visit with Sergey Lavrov and Sergey Kislyak

#BodyLanguageExpert #DonaldTrump #SergeyKislyak #SergeyLavrov #JamesComey #OvalOffice

2/ On 10 May 2017, Donald Trump met with Senior Russian officials Sergey Lavrov and Sergey Kislyak.

3/ Sergey Lavrov is Russia's Minister of Foreign Affairs, a post he has held since 2004.

At that time, Sergey Kislyak was Russia's Ambassador to the US.

4/ This meeting took place within a few hours after Trump fired FBI director, James Comey.

5/ Recall that the primary reason Trump fired Comey because the FBI's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections.

6/ Moreover, the US press wasn't allowed into the Oval office meeting and were not even aware of the meeting. The American public and the rest of the world found out only after the Russian Embassy and Tass released photos of the meeting.

7/ To begin with, in all four of these images, the relative and overall body positions of Lavrov, Trump, and Kislyak are highly similar.

8/ Note the axis of each man's shoulders and hips are in the same plane — none of them are turning or twisting their torso's significantly.

9/ Lavrov's and Kislyak's shoulder-hip axes are parallel to each other — and perpendicular to Trump's should-hip axis.

10/ Recall a day in middle school, when two popular kids were talking together, and you walked up and wanted to participate in the conversation.

11/ If the other kids were friendly and receptive to your fully participating and joining the conversation, they would each rotate their body's ~60º toward you, such that, if viewed from above your shoulder (and hips) would have formed an approximate equilateral triangle.

12/ So that even though heads will rotate, usually directed at the person who's talking, the orientation of the body-axes stay approximately the same.

13/ If one of the three people has to leave, once they do, the two remaining people will re-orient themselves, such that their shoulder-hip axes are, again, roughly parallel.

14/ If a fourth or a fifth person approaches the group and is equally welcomed, the three people rotate to form a square, then a pentagon, and with even more people, roughly a circle.

15/ This full body rotation in the context of group conversation is common body language behavior all over the world. Primarily initiated and performed subconsciously, it's a nonverbal way of saying, "You are a welcomed member of this conversation".

16/ Conversely, when the popular kids are rude or mean, or want to send a "you're not welcomed here" or "you're not one of us" or "we don't like you" message to you — they simply don't rotate their bodies.

17/ So even though you may be standing right next to two other people and you're trying to talk, you feel very emotionally uncomfortable and emotionally shut down.

18/ It quite dramatically and quickly lowers your confidence to be nonverbally excluded in this manner.

19/ Of course, this behavior is not limited to middle schoolers. Adults display this behavior just as often — even more so.

20/ And that is exactly what is happing to Donald Trump in these moments. Only he's not a school kid. He was the President of the United States. And he was in the Oval Office. 'His' office.

21/ This was Trump's home turf. The three men were standing in what is purported to be the most intimidating room in the world...

22/ ...But the Russians weren't intimidated at all. They were being the snobby, mean kids — bullying Trump in 'his' own White House. And Trump, was the clueless kid who didn't even realize they were laughing at him.

23/ The facial expressions in this image shows both Lavrov and Kislyak in the midst of sincere laughter.

24/ Although his head is rotated toward Lavrov, Trump's mouth is slightly asymmetrical. His shoulder's are hunched. Trump is not even smiling, let alone laughing. He's trying to smile — but he's not. He's trying to up-regulate his alpha.

25/ Trump's baseline skin tone aside, he's blushing in this moment. Blushing cannot be "acted" or faked.

26/ Trump is trying to figure out what, exactly, is so funny. Lavrov and Kislyak are laughing at his expense.

27/ In this next image, Lavrov is no longer laughing — but he is speaking. Kislyak is still laughing sincerely.

28/ He's trying to laugh, but Trump's face is a wincing — with an additional component of disgust.

29/ In this third image, Lavrov is speaking while suppressing a laugh ...

30/ ...while Kislyak is covering his mouth with is right hand. Although he could be self-conscious about his teeth or his breath, this is most likely a signal of Kislyak's emotional-processing.

31/ In this scenario, his intellect knows what is transpiring, but Kislyak's emotional brain can't quite get over the thrill.

32/ In this moment, Trump's face, while somewhat closer to a true smile that in any of the previous images, — it still falls short.

33/ Although it's difficult to fully visualize, there is bias and asymmetry toward his left, tension in his 'mustache area', nostril flaring, and the corners of his mouth are pulled too laterally for this to be even close to a sincere smile (Duchenne smile).

34/ Note Trump's need to always touch people on their upper arm. Here he does so to Lavrov. This is a violation of intimate space.

35/ People in powerful positions almost always feel entitlement to violate personal and intimate space (and Trump, much more so than others). Trump is accustomed to intimidating people in this manner. Here he's trying (but failing) to reassert dominance.

36/ In this last image, Lavrov is laughing once again — and we can only see a hint of Kislyak's lateral left eye and a bit of his elevated cheek — but this is enough to say that he's probably still laughing.

37/ Yet Trump is still not laughing sincerely. He's still trying to figure out what's so funny.

38/ Moreover, Trump is index finger (forefinger) pointing at Kislyak. Pointing in this manner is negatively received across all cultures.

39/ SUMMARY: These four moments from the now infamous Oval Office meeting (10 May 2017, the day after the FBI Director, James Comey, was fired), show Sergey Lavrov and Sergey Kislyak effectively bullying Donald Trump in the Oval Office.

continued...

40/ ... The two Russian diplomats were laughing at Trump in the Oval Office. They were excluding him. Lavrov and Kislyak were clearly the alphas and Trump was the beta — even on his own turf. The body language presented here screams it.

41/ Addendum:

All those who want to/need to become skilled and more nuanced in #BodyLanguage, please email ([e-mail]) or DM me.

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