Ever since President Donald Trump first took office,
questions have surrounded Melania's role within his administration,
as well as the state of their union. Little details of nonverbal communication are often
all anybody has to go on. Here are the times Melania Trump's body language spoke volumes.
The January 2017 inauguration of Donald Trump as the 45th president of the United States
elicited lots of emotions in lots of people,
and it was seemingly no different for his newly-minted first lady.
Observers noted how Melania was left to dutifully bring up the rear as her husband
stalked forward to meet Barack and Michelle Obama on the front steps of the White House.
They also commented on, dissected, and crafted .gifs out of the awkward moment on the inaugural
dais when Melania's face shifted drastically from a formal smile as Donald looked at her
to a depressive glance downward as he turned away. And the Internet soon
boiled with a new hashtag for a new era of American political life: #freemelania.
Body language experts were ready to categorize all of these nonverbal cues.
Of the president's curt, perfunctory interactions with his wife, Susan Constantine told Mic,
"Melania is an object to [Trump.] I don't see any
warmth or true love and compassion in that relationship whatsoever."
In Marie Claire, Judi James was less than charitable about the emotion on display
during the couple's first dance as president and first lady. According to her analysis,
"The first dance involves one piece of eye contact and little if anything in what are
called tie-signs: those small squeezes and pats or shared micro-expressions
that couples use for silent communication."
Donald and Melania Trump had only been the first couple for a day,
but everyone was already talking about what wasn't being said.
In May 2017, Donald Trump's presidency kicked into gear with his first foreign visit, a week-long
swing through Saudi Arabia, Israel, Palestine, and several more stops in Europe. Weighty issues
were on the docket, but all anyone could seem to talk about from the visit — aside from the moment
Trump and the Saudi king touched that glowing orb — was when Melana Trump appeared to swat
her husband's hand away on the red-carpeted tarmac at Ben Gurion International Airport.
The swat seen around the world, which happened as the Trumps met Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, in Israel,
was the latest first lady body language moment to go viral and feed the #freemelania narrative.
As TMZ snarked at the time,
"Trump's 'to-do' list for this trip
just got a little longer. 1. Peace in the Middle East [and] 2. flowers for Melania."
In 2019, the hand-swatting moment resurfaced as part of the book Free, Melania:
The Unauthorized Biography by CNN reporter Kate Bennett,
who provided more context from her view of the incident. She wrote,
"Melania dropped behind, the five-foot-wide swath of red carpet not quite big enough
for Trump's girth and his penchant for easy distraction. Thus Melania lagged,
unable to fit next to the other three, awkwardly relegated to unintended
submissive 'walk behind the man' positioning, and she didn't like it."
In January 2018, Closer Weekly enlisted body language expert Patti Wood to
analyze a series of photographs of the president and Mrs. Trump.
And Wood's assessment of their relationship as it appeared in the photos was generally not positive.
She noted broad strokes of seeming trouble between the Trumps,
saying that since Donald Trump's 2016 election, Melania has tended to walk with her head down,
and that she saw "tension" in Melania's interactions with her husband,
especially when Donald has a crowd or audience to focus on aside from her.
Of another photo from the 2017 G20 summit, Wood said,
"There's no relaxation. There's no openness. Her glance and his glance
are both away from each other. They're not in sync looking at the same spot,
and there's tension all the way up to her cheeks in her smile."
In another photo from a July 2017 rally in Youngstown, Ohio,
Wood detected some more relaxation from Melania as she and Donald waved to an adoring crowd.
She observed that Donald appeared to be pulling her in closer to him
in an effort to be seen as a unit and a couple. She further observed,
"She's got a really nice smile on her face and if you look at her fingers,
the hand is fairly relaxed. She's been showing for almost a year this unusual tension all the
way down to her fingertips, and this is a little bit more relaxed just in this very moment."
It was December 2018, and the first couple had issued their official holiday greeting,
which depicted them in formal wear, flanked by Christmas trees,
and looking remarkably stilted, like life-size cardboard cutouts of themselves.
So InStyle enlisted body language expert Patti Wood to break the image down for her.
"One thing quite striking is how straight up and down each of them are. They're not
leaning towards each other, or curled or curved toward each other, which would be
standard in a couple photo to show relationship and attachment or endearment. That's not there."
She also made a bold claim about Melania's mental state in the otherwise merry-looking photo,
saying,
"The whole curve of the inner arm, and her left hand in a loose fist — just the
closeness together of limbs and the tightness in the hand — all indicate tension and fear."
There may have been more to the stilted nature of the photo than even all of that tightness,
tension, and lack of attention. In secret tapes recorded by friend and
advisor Stephanie Winston Wolkoff for her 2020 book Melania and Me,
the first lady sounded less than enthusiastic about seasonal ornamentation.
For once, the message Melania Trump was sending came through loud and clear.
"I'm working like a -- my ass off at Christmas stuff that, you know,
who gives a f--- about the Christmas stuff and decoration? But I need to do it, right?"
For the White House's acknowledgment of Melania Trump's 49th birthday,
the static from observers wasn't over what Melania's movements might suggest.
It was because she didn't have anyone to react to at all.
A photo tweeted out by The White House's Twitter account in April 2019
depicted an unsmiling first lady sitting alone at the edge of a couch in the Oval Office,
surrounded not by her husband or family or friends,
but by a gaggle of press photographers, their equipment probing the space from every angle.
Refinery 29 commented on the image, saying,
"Regardless of what you think about the first lady, you have to admit
posting a photo for her birthday of all occasions where she is pictured
scowling and alone in a room full of strangers is pretty harsh."
The site's survey of Twitter responses to the shot revealed a similar sentiment.
One observer tweeted,
"Can't figure out why this photo was posted.
Is this the only one of her birthday? If so, it's really depressing.
Sitting there, alone, with a big empty space and a bouquet prop. Weird, actually."
The White House didn't grace this social media chatter with a response, of course,
so the birthday photo was left to speak for itself,
serving as yet more fuel for the #freemelania hashtag.
Sometimes, the nonverbal cues between Donald and Melania Trump don't fuel sympathy for the
First Lady, but instead, reveal someone who helps manage the man on her arm.
At the 2017 White House Easter Egg Roll, as the first couple stood at attention with
their son Barron for a performance of the national anthem, Melania was seen to nudge
her husband. The president immediately joined his wife in placing his hand over his heart.
Melania's nudge was tailor-made for Trump critics to point out the president's indifference to,
or lack of respect for such moments of patriotism and pageantry. As one Twitter user opined,
"An immigrant had to remind [the president] to put his hand over his heart for the national anthem."
Not everyone has seen Melania as a helpless bystander caught in her husband's spotlight.
As public speaking coach and speech writer Nick Morgan told Bustle,
"People who aren't fans of Trump like to see Melania as a captive,
a princess in the tower. Sorry to people who want to create a prisoner scenario,
but I think she's an independent woman who knew what Trump is like when she married him."
Writing in October 2016, in a larger piece for The Ringer
exploring the role of a political wife and "the limits of feminist sympathy,"
Lindsay Zoladz saw in Mrs. Trump a woman complicit in her husband's garish,
arrogant political theater — even if she hadn't quite seen the Oval Office coming. She wrote,
"Melania does not champion other women so much as she suggests that she is above them,
beyond them, and somehow immune to the messy indignities of gender,
which has become an unfortunate shortcoming in a moment when Trump's gaffes have increasingly
placed the lived realities of gender disparity at the center of the election."
It's an argument that will likely follow Melania beyond the White House, as people
debate whether she was swept up in a moment, or helping to steer the ship the whole time.
It was a passing moment caught by a press photographer at the G7
Summit in August 2019 as world leaders and their spouses gathered for a photo op.
Melania Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau greeting one another,
with a tasteful peck on her offered cheek as she reaches ever so slightly toward him. At the
same time, there was Donald Trump dominating the foreground, all downcast eyes, and pursed lips.
The gossip mongers and purveyors of Internet hot takes took the ball and ran with it,
declaring Melania's desperate true love for the dashing Canadian politico
and generally reading way too much into the First Lady's expression and body language.
Their greeting lasted an instant, but the #melanialovestrudeau hashtag trended for days.
Patti Wood, a non-verbal communication expert,
offered her thoughts on the moment, to InStyle, saying,
"She's looking with pleasure ... her offering up,
the way her neck is arched up ... The body language is that of a romantic kiss."
"Have you seen this?"
"It was taken at a moment we were leaning in to kiss each other on the cheek, and the
angle makes it look different than it actually is."
Kenzie Bryant in Vanity Fair offered her own dissection, saying,
"She looks like she's relishing her time with Trudeau,
like her step-daughter looked like she was relishing her time with Trudeau."
The nonverbal cues between Melania and Donald Trump are a lot to unpack.
But what does Melania's body language reveal about her relationship with Ivanka Trump?
During the Republican National Convention in August, the Melania vs. Ivanka theory got a ton
of fuel thanks to one viral moment. When Melania's perma-smile transformed into a haughty frown as
Ivanka passed her on stage, everyone noticed. Many commenters concocted theories of whispered
insults, while yet another body language expert, Dr. Jack Brown, chimed in. According to him,
"As Ivanka turns and can no longer see her, Melania's mid-face grows tense,
her nostrils flare, the corners of her mouth pull back and her upper eyelids begin to open
widely. [...] She has considerable anger and deep disgust toward Ivanka Trump."
In June 2020, POTUS and FLOTUS visited Saint John Paul II National Shrine in Washington, D.C. It
was a standard-issue photo op, the sort of thing dignitaries and their spouses do all of the time.
As the Trumps stood at the shrine, and the president delivered a waxen grin to
the assembled photographers, cameras caught him noticing in a glance that Melania wasn't smiling,
and telling her to do so. And she complied. Silently.
Kenzie Bryant wrote in Vanity Fair of the caught-on-camera moment, saying,
"Melania listened to him. She smiled. She gave him a third of a second of
those pearly whites before settling into something between a duck face and sneer."
Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus, even more Nicki
Swift videos about the latest hot topics and celebrity scandals are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.