The unbearable lightness of Donald Trump on the world stage
From shoving Montenegro leader aside to an alpha handshake with French president Emmanuel Macron, it is not easy watching Donald Trump
The alpha-male handshake. The deadpan reaction from Nato leaders. The presidential push to the front of the pack.
Even if Donald Trump hasn’t done a lot of public speaking during his big trip abroad, the body language of the president and those around him has spoken volumes.
Day after day, with no presidential press conferences on the schedule, Trump watchers have instead parsed the president’s movements, and taken away messages that are at times painfully obvious, at times puzzling.
Put it all together, though, and the sense emerges of a president aggressively, if somewhat awkwardly, trying to assert himself on the world stage — with mixed success depending on his audience.
“Throughout the trip he looked uncomfortable and isolated, others looked surprised or distant,” presidential historian Julian Zelizer of Princeton wrote in an email. “The looks capture how much of the international community is dealing with the unorthodox president who has done little to show he cares about the role of the US overseas.”
There was certainly any number of routine and friendly interactions between Trump and world leaders.
But there was no mistaking the cool reception of Nato leaders who stood by with stone faces on Thursday as Trump lectured US allies about the need to spend more on defence. No, heads were not bobbing as Trump intoned that he had been “very, very direct” with members of the Nato alliance in saying at they “must finally contribute their fair share.”