What’s in a signature?
Donald Trump this week signed his FBI chief’s letter of termination with a distinctive flourish that got tongues wagging among handwriting experts. Here we analyse his autograph and those of other top politicians
FOR modern politicians, their name is not only their brand but a representation of everything they stand for. And the way they sign their names can reveal a great deal about themselves – including, perhaps, things they may not want to let slip.
Donald Trump’s letter of dismissal to FBI director James Comey has come under scrutiny not just for its content but for the aggressive, angular manner of the President’s signature.
We asked Britain’s leading handwriting expert, co-founder and former chairman of the Graphology Society John Beck, to analyse the autographs of eight world leaders to see what personality traits they might be unwittingly revealing.
“Most people’s signatures are different from their usual handwriting,” explains Beck. “Your signature represents your public image, the face you want to present to the world.
“Given that for most politicians these days public image is everything, the way they sign their names can be very interesting indeed.” Donald Trump, President of the USA Trump’s signature has been a source of worry for a while now because it’s actually frighteningly similar to that of leading wartime Nazi Heinrich Himmler.
It has what some call a “blood on the barbed wire” angularity. It’s clearly the writing of an extremely combative person. Those tight sharp angles show the writer to be – almost literally – tightly wound himself.
This is someone who is stubborn and unyielding, who resists everyone’s ideas but his own. To be honest, it’s just dreadful and actually rather alarming. Theresa May, Prime Minister of Britain Her writing shows a big difference between the public and the private self. The “Theresa” part is broken up and illegible, whereas the “May” is perfectly clear.
So in public (“May”) she assumes a high profile but behind this (“Theresa”) she is a shy and reserved person who limits her involvement with people except close family and friends.
The broken up nature of “Theresa” also reinforces her inscrutability. Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour Party It’s just a great black blob, isn’t it? It doesn’t help that he seems to have used a heavy felt-tip pen either.
He’s clearly a man of very intense emotions – but also I think someone who is easy to deal with but not necessarily easy to truly know.
Full stops at the end are often put by people who say: this is me, this is what I say, wallop, bash, full stop, that’s it. Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister of Scotland This is clear and legible and the writing of a good communicator who is used to projecting herself in a large way.
Those long upper-zone movements show her to be much better at searching for solutions than she might appear to be – and the precisely dotted “i” shows good concentration. Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany This is a lovely signature. It’s the writing of a very well-spoken, kind person who seeks to solve problems by being agreeable rather than aggressive – just contrast the softness with Trump’s hard lines. That the M of Merkel looks like a W is significant too. The big leading stroke into that M is powerfully feminine. Emmanuel Macron, President-elect of France This is the signature of a highly ambitious man. It’s very bold, very strong – the stroke quality, degree of tension and typology all say leadership and high principle. And that Z-like underlining, quite common in France, is done enthusiastically. Vladimir Putin, President of Russia There are two things that stand out about this signature: first that this is the mark of a man of very high emotion and second that it’s the work of a man of equally high impenetrability.
It’s fiendishly complicated and totally illegible – he’s a man who’s virtually impossible to know.
The fact it rises at the end shows him, perhaps oddly, to be very sarcastic too. Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission This isn’t a signature – it’s a triangle! Perhaps he has signed so many things that he simply can’t be bothered any more.
What such a signature says to me is that he’s a difficult man to deal with – and that long line movement at the end indicates a desire to keep people at a distance.