Mrs May, Trump and reading body language

Theresa May rarely looks at ease around human beings. She approaches them hesitantly, anxiously, as if uncertain how they might react. She has the air of a small child, gingerly reaching out to pat a horse’s nose.

In the presence of Donald Trump, however, she appears even less relaxed than normal. Yesterday, the two leaders met at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Afterwards, for the cameras, they sat down together to exchange a few words. Their body language was characteristic.

Trump’s legs were spread as far apart as his armchair would allow.

Mrs May’s, by contrast, were pinched tightly together, as if clamped in an invisible vice. The US president was holding forth about his love and admiration, his tremendous love and admiration, for the Prime Minister.

“We’re on the same wavelength in every respect,” he insisted. Mrs May nodded politely.

“The Prime Minister and myself have a great relationship,” Trump went on.

“Some people don’t necessarily believe that, but I can tell you it’s true.

“I have a tremendous respect for the Prime Minister and the job she’s doing.

“I think the feeling is mutual, from the standpoint of liking each other a lot...”

Mrs May remembered to nod again. “So, uh,” said the president, after a brief pause, “there was a little bit of a false rumour out there. I just wanted to correct it, frankly, because we have great respect for everything you’re doing.”

Abruptly he stopped talking to camera, swung to face Mrs May, and looked her firmly in the eye. She nodded energetically.

Trump didn’t actually say what the “false rumour” was, but the context

‘I have a tremendous respect for the Prime Minister and the job she’s doing.

I think the feeling is mutual, from the standpoint of liking each other a lot...’

made it clear enough: some people, apparently, seem to have got an idea into their heads that he isn’t Mrs May’s biggest fan. Where they got that idea, I don’t know.

I wonder whether it had anything to do with the time Mrs May said Trump was “wrong” to promote videos by a racist far-right group, and Trump publicly told her to keep her nose out of his business (“Don’t focus on me, focus on the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom. We are doing just fine!”).

While at Davos, Mrs May gave a speech.

Her audience of Eurocrat corporate high-fliers were presumably hoping for some news on Brexit.

However, instead she treated them to a lecture on the importance of modern technology.

Thuddingly banal in both style and content, it came across like a book report by a pupil who has read no more than the blurb, then cribbed the rest from Wikipedia (“In my opinion, William Shakespeare was a very important playwright. He was born in Stratford-upon-avon in 1564 and his wife was called Anne Hathaway. I liked reading Hamlet because I believe it was highly important”).

On the other hand, it at least meant that no one was able to talk to her for 20 minutes, so she probably quite enjoyed it.