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Hey everybody, Dr. G here. I’m a clinical and forensic psychologist, as well as a body language expert, and today we’re going to be analyzing the behavior and body language of the meeting between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Before we get started with this, a couple of quick things. One, I wanted to make sure you know this is not a psychological evaluation of any kind. These are just my opinions. In addition to that, I do want to remind you to like and subscribe if you want to see more content just like this. All right, let’s go. What we’re going to be analyzing today is President Trump’s recent meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
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What we’re going to be looking at is the power dynamics between them. We’re going to see what language says regarding their meeting. All right, let’s just jump right in. Now, this is really interesting right here. Right after you see President Trump get out of his car, you see him touch it. Watch this right here. I’m going to explain what this means. So, that touch right there, that’s a way to ground ourselves, to physically touch something we’re familiar with. So, the idea that he’s touching this car, to me that says there’s actually more stress in this meeting than you might think. So, the first thing you may notice is the President Xi holds his hand out waiting for President Trump to approach.
ground verb → grounded as adj. grounded well balanced and sensible沉稳的; 明智的：
for someone so young, Chris is extremely grounded.就这么年轻的人来说, 克里斯是特别明智的。
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Now, this is meant to be friendly, so that is a friendly sign. That part right there is not a power play, but we’re going to see some other things as as we keep going. So, as you can see, he holds his hand out waiting for President Trump to approach. Now, President Trump is someone who is very tactile. He is someone that likes to touch other people. That’s the way he connects with them. That’s the way he communicates. And sometimes a tap on the back of the hand can be just that. It can be a friendly way to connect. But right here, I think it actually is an attempt at a power play based on some more context. Now, what I want you to watch is the position of their hands when they first shake hands.
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Just watch this right here. Now, immediately President Trump tries to pull President Xi towards him a little bit. But President Xi just extends his arm further. He doesn’t allow his body to get pulled towards him because that’s a trick that President Trump does very often. I’ve talked about that in other videos. But watch this right here. President Xi’s body doesn’t move at all. He just extends his arm further to somewhat refuse to allow him to pull him forward. So see, their hands make contact. Now watch this. So as you can see, President Xi just kept his arm at a longer distance, which keeps President Trump at a longer distance.
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Rather than feeling the need to get close and shake more tightly, he just lets him take his arm. So it’s it’s a way to sort of refuse to allow himself to be moved by President Trump. So this we are seeing some pretty strong power dynamics here. So as you can see, after they finish shaking hands, President Trump is still going to pat him on the back. And the reason for that, once again, this is not him trying to be warm necessarily. This is him basically saying that he’s the leader here. At least that’s what he’s trying to say. Now we’re going to see it’s going to shift a little bit in a minute, but that’s the attempt I think.
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Now if you look at the distance here, I think that’s significant. I do think that it suggests that neither one of them wants to appear overly warm to the other one. They want to be gracious, they want to be accommodating, but at the same time they are very separate. Now one thing you’re going to notice is that President Xi is not standing behind Trump. He is standing in front of him. He is leading, so to speak. I want you to pay attention to that as we continue to go through this. But if you pay attention to the way that Trump shakes hands, you know, this is also very different. You’re going to see a difference in the way that he shakes the hands of Xi’s people versus how Xi shakes the hands of Trump’s people.
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And as I pointed out before, President Xi is standing a little bit in front of President Trump. And you may think, “Well, that’s just polite because he’s in his country.” But, I think that it’s more than that. I think that he is actually leading him, so to speak. And yet, you’re going to see more of that. So, now you can see President Trump just extended his hand, basically saying, “Go ahead and walk ahead of me.” Now, President Xi was walking ahead of him anyway. So, I do think that this gesture was a an attempt to neutralize the fact that President Xi is leading right now. But, I do want you to see something interesting that happens in just 1 second.
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Now, interestingly, President Trump is now standing behind President Xi as he is going to shake the hands of various American dignitaries. So, it’s interesting that he is taking that position. He’s allowing President Xi to actually be in the lead here and remain in the lead. So, at this point, President Trump is basically accepting that President Xi is leading this part of the meeting. Once again, President Xi is in the lead. Instead of walking side by side approximately at the same time, she does tend to walk in front of him. Now, as you can see, President Trump was spreading his hands out whenever he’s emphasizing,
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probably talking about how great everything is or or how big everything is around them. Seriously, I imagine that’s what he’s talking about. You see the hands come out. That’s just his default body language. That’s his comfort zone. So, now they’ve done some rounds. They’ve watched various soldiers march. They’re getting ready to actually go into a meeting. So, let’s watch the last of the body language outside. And you can see President Trump just a second ago patting his leg. He is someone who once again is very tactile. He is always trying to stay stimulated in some sense. So, as he’s doing this,
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that’s a way to feel comfortable. That is a pacifying behavior. So, there may be some discomfort here. Maybe whether it’s having to walk up these stairs or maybe it’s just the awkwardness of having to walk with one other person for these long distances, but you’re seeing a little bit of pacifying behavior. See, this is what’s so so surprising, actually. You’re seeing President Trump picking his suit. You’re seeing him move around. There’s some discomfort here, which we don’t typically see in situations like this so much. See, there’s that adjustment. He’s moving his arm. There’s There’s a little bit of discomfort here.
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Now, we’re briefly going to watch part of the meeting between President Xi and President Trump as they talk about US-China relations. The world has come to a new crossroads. Can China and the United States overcome the Thucydides Trap? Now, one of the behaviors that’s very consistent with President Xi is that he doesn’t show a lot of emotion. He doesn’t have a lot of subtle body language. You’re going to see some big body language in terms of things that he does, in terms of ways that he sits, and so forth, but in terms of the face, which is what we’re looking at now, he shows very little, actually. Can China and the United States overcome the Thucydides trap and create a new paradigm of major country relations?
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And the Thucydides trap, that’s basically saying that it’s inevitable that with a rising power, that they’re going to go to war eventually. So, basically, it’s talking about the relationship between the US and China for anybody who’s not familiar with that term. Can we meet global challenges together and provide more stability for the world? Now, President Trump did not like this. This is a face of anger, irritation, frustration. We’re seeing a whole lot of body language right here as that’s being translated for him. I’m going to show you I’m going to break this down a little bit. Let’s go back for a second.
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global challenges together and provide more stability You can see right there. He’s taking a big breath right now. You can see his nostrils are flaring because he’s trying to calm himself down. And then I want you to watch his mouth very closely. for the world. Now this right here is a look of disapproval. His eyebrows are pointed downward, his mouth is pursed. He is disapproving of what’s being said right now. He does not like this. He looks angry and he looks frustrated. global challenges together and provide more stability for the world. Just because we’re covering so much today, I’m just going to be showing you the the highlights of this.
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cooperation and lose from confrontation. We should be partners, not rivals. We should help each other succeed and prosper together and find the right President Trump continues to look unhappy for the most part. He’s somebody that will smile, who does tend to show a lot of body language when he approves of something. As he’s listening to this, he seems unhappy. The look on his face we’re continuing to see some degree of anger. so as to make 2026 a historic landmark year that opens up a new chapter in China-US relations. >> [snorts] >> I will pause here and hand over to you. Another thing that Trump has been doing a lot is looking down when he’s being spoken to.
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And that’s interesting cuz that’s not something he used to do a whole lot. And we’re seeing more of that now. I do think that there is maybe somewhat less confidence than he used to have. He used to be very bold and in situations like this, it doesn’t seem to be that he has the same degree of confidence that he had maybe 9 years ago back when he originally went to China. landmark year that opens up a new chapter in China-US relations. I will pause here The reason I talk about looking down is we associate this particularly if the head moves down cuz that’s a more extreme version, but we associate that with losing confidence.
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and hand over to you, Mr. President. Thank you. like few I’ve ever seen before. And I think I was particularly impressed by those children. They were happy. They were beautiful. The military is obvious. It couldn’t be better, but those children were amazing and they represent so much and I know I know they represent so much to you. >> Now right here he does seem a little bit more himself. This is a little bit more the kind of cadence you would expect from him. And I think part of the reason is that he doesn’t like listening to other people talk and I mean that. I’ve said that before. I think he gets very impatient.
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I think he gets bored quickly. So when other people are the primary speakers, I think that he gets tired of that very fast. You and I have known each other now for a long time. In fact, the longest relationship of our two countries that any president and president has had and uh that’s to me an honor. Now we’re going to look at Trump and Xi in their final meeting in Zhongnanhai Garden. To me it’s absolutely fascinating to see just how different their body positions are. Now if you look at President Xi, he’s sitting in a dominant posture. He’s sitting up very straight. His legs are out. His arms are to the to his sides.
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It’s almost like he’s sitting on a throne. He’s taking up as much space as possible and that’s a very dominant posture. Trump on the other hand, his feet are tucked in more. His hands are between his legs. His is a less dominant posture. He’s also looking down right here. So the the contrast is quite quite dramatic actually. So as you can see President Trump right now is starting to steeple his hands a little bit. Now this is something we see him do all the time. When you steeple, you basically are showing that you’re the expert in the room. But when you do it between your legs, it’s a weaker version of that.
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That’s not a very strong way to do it. Typically if you’re doing it in front of yourself, that is a very dominant posture. Doing it like this, not so much. But right here it’s a non-committed steeple. You see his hands continue to go back and forth, and he continues to cup his hands in each other. So, they don’t interact a lot more from here on, but I think that this shot really does describe this entire trip, which has been the President Xi has taken a very dominant position, and President Trump hasn’t really challenged that. He has stayed back a little bit. He has been restrained in that sense. He has not shown body language that he wants to lead in this situation,
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which I’m fascinated by. That actually surprises me quite a lot. All right, we’ll go and wrap things up. Hopefully, this is helping you better understand some of President Trump’s body language during his trip to China. Now, some of this body language surprises me a little bit. I think that he wanted something out of this trip, and because of that, he is not trying to be as dominant as he is at other times. He’s not showing as much bravado as he does at times. And China’s President Xi apparently does want to be a leader in this situation. He is showing dominance. He is showing that he wants to be the leader.
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He is taking up a large amount of space. Like I said, the chair he’s sitting on right now looks like he’s sitting on a throne. It really does. And President Trump’s body language is suggesting he’s not trying to challenge that in any way. So, I think that what he wanted out of this trip meant more to him than being dominant in this trip, which is a different approach for him. We don’t always see that. If you have any other thoughts about this, or if there’s anything else you want to analyze, please let me know in the comments below. Last thing before we get finished up is I do want to remind you to like and subscribe if you want to see more content just like this.
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All right, thanks for watching.