President Barack Obama and Donald Trump put on a united front and vowed to work together in what appeared to be a friendly meeting at the White House Thursday.
Trump said he was ‘looking forward to dealing with the president in the future’, while Obama claimed he was ‘very encouraged by the interest in President-elect Trump to work with my team’.
But even to the untrained eye it was clear there was some tension, and body language expert Patti Wood has analyzed the first meeting between the most powerful man in America and the person chosen to replace him.
Obama was ‘extremely fatigued, resigned and not hopeful’, while Trump was ‘tentative, serious and perhaps fearful’, Wood told DailyMail.com.
Obama and Trump, whose election win sent shockwaves around the world on Wednesday, talked for more than 90 minutes in the Oval Office before addressing the media.
It was a public display intended to help the country digest the results of Tuesday’s presidential election after violent protests broke out across the country Wednesday night.
The president-elect called Obama a ‘very good man’.
‘If you look at the seating position – their lower legs,’ Wood explains, ‘they are both in the male, alpha position saying “I am a man”.’
However, she adds that Obama’s legs are much further apart, which demonstrates strength and reveals he is subconsciously saying, ‘I’m still on top’.
But it was Trump’s hands that caught Wood’s attention – he put them in a ‘downward prayer position’.
‘The thing that is very significant is Trump’s hand position,’ Wood told DailyMail.com, describing it as the ‘downward prayer position’, which is not typical for the President-elect.
‘Trump holds his own hands as he begins speaking which is an indication he needs to comfort himself,’ she added.
Wood pointed out that as Obama gestures, he rests his arms on his legs. ‘That’s not typical Obama which tells me he is weary.’
The sitting president stressed during the meeting that his top priority was to ‘ensure our president-elect is successful.’
‘I have been very encouraged by the interest in President-elect Trump to work with my team around many of the issues that this great country faces and I believe that it is important for all regardless of party and regardless of political preferences to now come together, work together to deal with the many challenges we face,’ he said.
But Wood isn’t convinced. ‘There is a part where he says he has been encouraged,’ she said. ‘As he says it he closes his eyes. I call that an eye block. That tells me he doesn’t feel totally encouraged.
Credit: Daily Mail. Photo: ddp USA REX Shutterslock