Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin met for a crunch summit meeting in Alaska with many hoping it would lead toward the end in the war in Ukraine – although no deal has been reached
Donald Trump channelled his inner Meghan Markle with a subtle “power tap” during his meeting with Vladimir Putin, according to a body language expert.
Trump and Putin walked away from Friday’s summit in Alaska with no deal to end the war in Ukraine. Both leaders said during a press briefing that they had made progress on unspecified issues, although they offered no details and did not take questions.
While neither leader paid attention to questions from reporters, body language expert Darren Stanton said there were subtle tells of a Meghan Markle-like “power tap.” Mr Stanton said: “I noticed Trump is tapping his fingers on the side of the podium is allowing Putin to have his little monologue, however, I think Trump again is displaying signs of impatience and just wanting to crack on.”
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Trump literally rolled out the red carpet for the Russian leader, although the body language expert believed the US President would have tried to gain the upper hand with mind games. But it was one particular gesture that caught his eye.
Mr Stanton explained: “I noticed Trump did what we call a power pat, it’s a classic power gesture used by politicians and, in fact, Meghan Markle tends to use this quite a lot with Prince Harry, it looks quite a courteous gesture but basically it’s when the flat of their hand on the other person, it appears innocuous, but it can be perceived as a power gesture to say, you know, ‘I’m the more powerful man here’.
“But I think Trump’s going to be doing his very best not to play mind games. And in fact, you know, after all the years I’ve assessed Trump and various politicians, Putin is the one person that Trump tends not to play smart with. You know, they’re two silverbacks, they are too alpha males. And Putin gives as good as he gets, so it’s going to be very interesting to see the non-verbal sort of behavioural gestures when the two men get together.”
Analysing the pair’s meeting, Mr Stanton said: “It’s frankly encouraging that Putin is stating he wants things to end, [we’re] just waiting for the point line in terms of what he needs before [a ceasefire] can take place. Again as I stated earlier both men matching mirror each other’s posts showing mutual respect both non-verbally and verbally. [The] meeting seems to have gone as best as it possibly can.
“The main thing that came out of that was the Putin managed to get in the comment about next time let’s meet in Moscow and he can put Trump on the back foot, but then said I’ll take some heat on that one but let’s see. Both men made a hasty retreat and did not take questions from the journalists. Overall it appears of successful encounter both men showing a lot of respect and mutual willingness to find peace.
“Putin on the surface seems to be quite congruent with wanting peace but they did not allude to what would need to happen in order for a ceasefire to take place but from another perspective it was very interesting. Trump continued to demonstrate his admiration for Putin and there seems to be a very significant romance similar to how Macron and Trudeau used to be.”
He noted that there was “no mention of the word ceasefire” and “the fact they didn’t take questions”, saying this aspect was “interesting”. Mr Stanton added: “From a non-verbal point of view, I think Trump’s done himself a bit of good by re-establishing a relationship with Putin. I just wonder how much of the meeting was about the ceasefire and how much of it was business related [I’m] not sure.”
The talks did not produce a meaningful step toward a ceasefire in Ukraine, the deadliest war in Europe since World War 2. However, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that he spoke to Trump after the summit and will be meeting with the President at the White House on Monday.