Law of the jungle as Leo plays up to silverback Trump
TAOISEACH Leo Varadkar stuck to the script of ‘plámásing the notoriously thin-skinned’ Donald Trump, but was largely ‘submissive’ to the President, an analysis of his body language reveals.
Analysing key moments in the White House, body language and communications expert Rowan Manahan told the MoS the politics of body language and a series of non-verbal cues give an insight into the Taoiseach’s internal conflict to assert his own dominance, but also placate Trump.
‘Both display classic primate behaviour. You’re essentially watching two monkeys in good suits, but Trump is the real silverback gorilla greeted by a younger gorilla in the pack. You can see Leo’s uneasiness at the crassness of having to do this paddywhackery stuff and how it will appear back home,’ Mr Manahan said.
Images of the men show Varadkar aping Trump’s behaviour in the hope of building a rapport. He mimics Trump’s movements, revealing a desire to be liked and to form a relationship by turning his legs inwards towards Trump, to the point where their feet are almost touching.
‘The identical body language is a classical mirroring technique. Salespeople are trained to do this. I think this is conscious on Leo’s part, not unconscious, because he wants to show respect, show deference and be nonthreatening. All of which can be communicated with a glance or touch on the shoulder.
‘You see the mirroring with the way their legs are splayed, and Leo at one point is leaning back in his chair only to lean forward and mirror Trump, and both are also interlacing their fingers on their laps.
‘Leo is clearly concentrating a
lot, is quite stiff in the body and is trying to not let his face crack during the banalities of the exchange,’ he adds. ‘It’s quite like the awkward nephew who is being forced to go to an aunt’s house for an afternoon and has to play nice. He is trying to maintain a façade that one has to make and I think he does it very well.
‘But Trump is equally tense, nervous and edgy. He always leans forward from his seat to try to look commanding and young. But his body language with Leo is in contrast to how he appeared alongside Angela Merkel when he leaned back in his seat, folded his arms and was like a petulant child.’
In front of the press, Varadkar gives the thumbs-up to Trump twice – again indicating a desire to please.
‘The thumbs-up is an unconscious gesture, along with a submissive dropping of his eyes and flash of a placatory smile when they are talking about Leo’s past as a Congressional intern. Trump tells him, “You’ve made great progress”.
‘Trump infantilises younger men, no matter how successful they are in life, and Leo is playing into this. It looks to me like a mixed bag of conscious and unconscious cues – he may be thinking about how awful this will look back home, but is sticking to his tactic of plámásing the notoriously thinskinned President.’