This is not about the words he uses or his positions. I have noticed that when he speaks he bares his lower teeth almost all the time, and I was wondering if there is any research indicating any personality or character trait that this habit indicates.
I’ve tried googling this and results are slim. I have encountered this before most often among Japanese speakers (I have a lot of contact with Japanese speakers as my husband is Japanese) and my very informal survey seems to show that this is a characteristic of the didactic type who doesn’t like to be contradicted or disbelieved. But it seems much less frequent among American English speakers, so such a prominent case of it seems like it might be significant. Significant of something, but I know not what.
To me it means belligerence. Jutting the lower jaw forward is aggressive body language. Then there is his speech pattern, which also seems to indicate aggressiveness. He affects what seems to me to be a street dialect to try to appear to be a tough guy.
For me, it’s not the words, it’s not what his teeth and lips look like when he says them, it’s the fact that he word-salads everything he talks about. Listen to any random sentence the man utters and he’ll repeat himself three times. It’s almost like he has no clue what he is ever talking about and he’s just trying to pad things out.
He definitely seems to be imitating the classic “Mussolini on the balcony” expression. This includes the jaw projection which makes the lower teeth more visible when he opens his mouth.
(While Googling for comparison images I came across this apt listicle.)
This seems like as good a thread as any to mention this. It appears to me that Trump gives photographers more chances to capture him making a ridiculous face than any celebrity I can think of. Have you all noticed that? New photos of him looking unhinged or about to explode seem to pop up daily.
From what Trump has written, and from what he has studied and practices… the neck and the palms are two important triggers in the human mind for opening others’ brains to be more receptive to a message (influence, persuasion).
As he gets older, his neck deteriorates. Tilting the head and jutting the jaw and exposing the lower teeth are directly and indirectly related here. As is looking up, especially in standing interviews.
The showing of palms and the presentation of one’s neck is the root of it. Without grabbing cites, but from reading, it is based on studies (how people are perceived by others when different body language techniques are used).
Random point. IIRC, even though his father was “rich”…it was kind of back in the day even when the son of a rich guy had to pay “his dues” on the streets…and the streets back then were some burb of New York/New Jersey…so I suspect a fair bit of him mannerisms come from that…
I’m trying to remember who said this, I think it was Bill Burr on a radio talk show. Not s bit it was just part of a longer conversation. He talked about how he had been home in Boston during a time when Bill Clinton was in town. By coincidence he was on the street when Clinton’s motorcade stopped nearby and Bill got out and shook hands. Burr said what struck him was that Clinton had this open mouthed moronic look plastered on his face the entire time. It was frozen in place. Burr said later when he saw pictures he understood why. No matter when anyone took a picture it would show Clinton with a perfect normal and warm smile. There was no risk of getting caught in mid-expression and having a goofy picture. That’s a polished politician. Trump is not. I myself witnessed Cory Booker using the same technique when he visited our town.
It is the position of an agressive salesman trying to look friendly. As Philster says, it works with a large segment of the population. Check out ads for ambulance chasers and loan sharks: a lot of them do the same thing.
