A body language expert has explained a variety of hand gestures and what they mean, including one done by Barron Trump at his father’s inauguration.
While he was a young child when Donald Trump first became president back in 2017, he is significantly more grown up now as people have rather noticed.
Barron, now 18, is sort of the American equivalent of Gary Barlow’s massive son, at 6’7, he tends to tower over pretty much everyone else around him.
There were a lot of eyes on him at the inauguration events, not least because his father called him out in front of everyone to say Barron had been suggesting podcasts to go on such as The Joe Rogan Experience, which Donald Trump claimed helped him connect with young voters.
The younger Trump also went up to his father’s successor and predecessor as president, Joe Biden, to shake hands with him and his VP Kamala Harris who was defeated in the recent election.
Lip reader Jeremy Freeman said that Barron Trump had said ‘g’day to you sir’ to Biden and ‘ma’am, good day’ to Harris, and that Biden had said ‘it’s good to see you man‘.
You can probably tell what this hand gesture means (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Meanwhile, at one point, Barron Trump was seated and put his hands together in a manner similar to Mr Burns from The Simpsons, a gesture which is known as the ‘politician’s steeple’.
According to body language expert Darren Stanton, when people do the ‘politician’s steeple’, it’s supposed to convey an ‘authoritative position’.
Stanton told The Sun that the hand gesture is not meant to convey that someone thinks they’re better than you, but that they feel in a position of authority at that particular moment.
The body language expert said this ‘display of authority’ could also mean ‘evaluation’ in some environments, and if you see someone doing the politician’s steeple while tapping their fingers together, that can show they’re giving what’s being said a bit of a think.
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According to the expert, this is an ‘authoritative position’ (X)
Stanton said tapping meant that the person doing it is ‘considering what’s being said’ and ‘thinking whether there is any merit to it’.
Elsewhere in the inauguration, Elon Musk twice performed a rather distinctive hand gesture with a significant amount of historical meaning.
Musk thumped his chest before extending his right arm up into the air fully extended as he stood before an audience, the South African businessman then turned around and repeated the gesture to a US flag.
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Topics: US News, Donald Trump, Politics
Joe Harker
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Danielle Fowler
Security expert says operation to protect Trump was ‘apocalyptic disaster’ during assassination attempt
An expert with over 30 years of experience protecting people, including heads of state, said security was an ‘absolute joke’
A security expert with over 30 years in the business has said the operation to protect Trump at a rally where he was shot at was an ‘absolutely apocalyptic disaster’.
On 13 July someone attempted to assassinate former US president Donald Trump as he held a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Shots rang out while he was delivering a speech and Trump clutched a bleeding ear as Secret Service snipers responded and returned fire on the shooter, killing them.
As Trump was bundled away by security he got up and raised his fist to the crowd, the gunman was later identified as 20-year-old Pennsylvania man Thomas Matthew Crooks, a registered Republican voter.
He had taken up a position on the roof of a building near the rally with a line of sight to Trump’s stage, and security expert Will Geddes said it was an ‘absolute joke’ that Crooks was able to line up a shot and fire.
One person attending the rally was killed in the shooting and two more critically injured, while Trump came within millimetres of being killed.
Secret Service agents covered Donald Trump with their bodies, but a security expert wondered how they’d let someone get to a vantage point and line up a shot. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
In the aftermath of the assassination attempt many people are wondering how on Earth someone was able to get into a position where they could take a shot at Trump, and the expert couldn’t believe it had been allowed to happen.
“That is one of the basics when you’re when you’re protecting a principal,” he said of the need for the US Secret Service to look at every potential vantage point, a ‘principal’ here being the main person someone is assigned to protect.
“I’ve looked after a number of former heads of state and VIPs if they’re in a rally, or if they’re performing or if they’re in a location where potentially they’re going to be in a public area or an open area.
“You look at every possible point where the threats could potentially come from, including elevated positions, which is why you will have spotters, whether they be armed or not.
“You will have people in elevated positions, even with binoculars, looking into the crowd, looking at the same eyeline that you may be at and above to see if anybody else may have a vantage point, potentially to shoot or strike against the potential target.”
Will Geddes has plenty of experience protecting high-profile targets, and said Trump’s security letting someone line up a shot was an ‘absolute joke’. (LADbible)
The security expert also said that another part of the events on Saturday (13 July) which was an error was ‘the Secret Service not moving him, clearing him off what we call the X’.
Geddes explained that ‘the X’ is the spot ‘where the principal is when the attack is taking place’.
“The X is what we want to move them off as quickly as possible,” he said of the moment when shots were first fired and agents rushed to Trump to cover him, and criticised them not getting him off the X or protecting their principal properly.
Geddes said that he saw ‘Secret Service agents fumbling their weapons trying to re-holster them’ and others who ‘weren’t even as tall as Donald Trump’ which meant they were ‘providing no human shield benefit whatsoever’.
After the shots were fired Trump was able to stand up on stage and raise his fist, it produced a dramatic photo but Geddes said they should have been getting him out of there as ‘there could have been more than one shooter’.
Geddes said it was ‘just unbelievable’ that Trump was ‘not shielded’ as they tried to get him off the stage, with the former US president able to pose for the crowd. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Reporting in the aftermath of the shooting has put the Secret Service under scrutiny for how this ended up happening.
After the shooting, eyewitnesses claimed to the BBC that they had spent minutes pointing out that Crooks was on top of a roof with a gun to police but nothing was done about it.
According to Geddes ‘the area where the would-be assassin was actually located shouldn’t have actually been accessible’ to the public during the rally.
He said: “That should have been closed off, that should have had security, whether it be local PD, private security or whoever there was.
“There’s all sorts of technology the US Secret Service have that are available. They can run drones, they could run aerial reconnaissance, all sorts of stuff which could potentially forewarn them of possible trouble, of someone suspicious in the area.
“So this guy being in a vantage point where he could take a direct line shot against Donald Trump was just beyond comprehension.
“Unbelievable, unbelievable, I would say just the worst level of embarrassment.”
Featured Image Credit: Rebbeca Droke/Getty /Supplied
Topics: Donald Trump, US News
Joe Harker
Photo shows moment bullet narrowly missed Donald Trump in assassination attempt
It’s been dubbed as one of the ‘craziest photos ever’
Donald Trump was the target of an assassination attempt when a bullet narrowly missed his head on Saturday (13 July).
The former US president was speaking at a rally in Pennsylvania after several gunshots from a member of the crowd were aimed at the 78-year-old.
Watch below:
A bloodied Trump said he was shot in the ear as secret service agents rushed to his aid.
The Republican was then flown away to New Jersey after visiting a local Pennsylvania hospital.
Taking to his social media site, Truth Social, Trump said: “I want to thank the United States Secret Service and all of Law Enforcement, for their rapid response on the shooting that just took place in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Trump was the target of an assassination attempt. (Trump Campaign Office / Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“Most importantly, I want to extend my condolences to the family of the person at the rally who was killed, and also to the family of another person that was badly injured.
“It is incredible that such an act can take place in our country. Nothing is known at this time about the shooter, who is now dead.
“I was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear. I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin.
“Much bleeding took place, so I realised then what was happening. GOD BLESS AMERICA!”
Trump fist pumped the crowd as he was taken away to safety. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
The Secret Service confirmed in a statement earlier today (14 July) that the shooter ‘is now deceased’.
They said: “US Secret Service personnel neutralised the shooter, who is now deceased. US Secret Service quickly responded with protective measures and the former president is safe and being evaluated.”
The FBI has since identified the gunman as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania.
Below is a photo taken by New York Times photographer, Doug Mills, who captured the moment the bullet looked to narrowly miss Trump’s head:
This is one of the craziest photos ever!
Breaking down the photo, Michael Harrigan, a retired FBI special agent, told the New York Times: “It absolutely could be showing the displacement of air due to a projectile.
“The angle seems a bit low to have passed through his ear, but not impossible if the gunman fired multiple rounds.
“If the gunman was firing an AR-15-style rifle, the .223-caliber or 5.56-millimeter bullets they use travel at roughly 3,200 feet per second when they leave the weapon’s muzzle.
“And with a 1/8,000th of a second shutter speed, this would allow the bullet to travel approximately four-tenths of a foot while the shutter is open.”
Featured Image Credit: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Topics: Donald Trump, US News, Politics
Anish Vij
Donald Trump reveals injury in first public appearance after getting shot in the ear
Donald Trump appeared at the Republican convention in Milwaukee after being shot in Pennsylvania
Donald Trump has appeared in public for the first time since he was shot in the ear in an attempt on his life.
The former US president’s right ear was clipped by a bullet at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on 13 July as he was addressing a crowd.
One attendee of the rally was killed and two more seriously injured, according to authorities.
The shooter was later identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, a registered Republican voter who had somehow been able to get on top of a roof which provided a vantage point to Trump’s stage.
Donald Trump was shot in the ear during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, at the weekend. (REBECCA DROKE/AFP via Getty Images)
Crooks was shot dead by Secret Service snipers who returned fire, though a security expert has criticised the operation to protect Trump as an ‘apocalyptic disaster’ considering the 20-year-old got into a position to take a shot and was able to open fire in the first place.
A number of witnesses also claimed that they’d tried to warn security about Crooks for several minutes.
Trump has since appeared at the Republican convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, revealing his injury which saw him wearing a bandage over his right ear.
He had issued a statement following being shot, but this is the first time he’s been out and about in public since coming very close to being killed.
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Trump attended the Republican convention with a bandage over his ear. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
At the convention he picked Ohio senator J.D. Vance, a man who, in 2016, had called Trump a ‘terrible candidate’ and mused in texts to a friend whether the former president was ‘a cynical asshole like Nixon’ or ‘America’s Hitler’, as his nominee for the vice president.
He didn’t address the convention as his speech is not scheduled until Thursday (18 July), but was greeted with applause by those in attendance.
Instead, speeches were made by other Republicans who said they ‘must unite as a party, and we must unite as a nation’, but denounced their opponents the Democrats as ‘a clear and present danger to America, to our institutions, our values and our people’, so that unity isn’t being extended to everyone it seems.
Out in public for the first time since he was shot, Trump chose his VP nominee for the upcoming election. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Responding to criticism over a recent comment he made saying it was ‘time to put Trump in the bullseye’ and move on from his poor debate performance, US president Joe Biden said it was a ‘mistake’ to use the word ‘bullseye’ but wanted more focus on what Trump had been saying.
He told NBC: “Look, how do you talk about the threat to democracy, which is real, when a president says things like he says?
“Do you just not say anything because it may incite somebody?”
WATCH: Donald Trump appears in public for the first time since assassination attempt
As for what Trump has been saying, at an event in March had said it was ‘going to be a bloodbath for the whole country’ if he didn’t win the next election.
In other comments, Trump said that he would not act like a dictator if he won a second term ‘other than on day one’, and said illegal immigrants were ‘poisoning the blood of our country’ which the Biden campaign compared to the phrase ‘blood poisoning’ written by Adolf Hitler in Mein Kampf.
Last November, Trump said he would ‘root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country’ if he won the election.
