Donald Trump shows hidden 'contempt' towards Emmanuel Macron with one subtle gesture

A body language expert has claimed that Donald Trump showed contempt towards French President Emmanuel Macron after he corrected him over how Europe was helping Ukraine.

Whilst sitting side-by-side at the White House on the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Trump claimed that Europe had loaned money to Ukraine which they would “get back”.

In response, Macron placed his hand on Trump’s arm and said: “No, in fact, to be frank, we paid. We paid 60 percent of the total effort. It was like the US: loans, guarantees, grants.”

Despite being corrected, Trump seemed to insist that he had not been wrong, replying: “If you believe that, it’s OK with me. They get their money back, and we don’t. But now we do.”

Following this tense exchange, body language expert Darren Stanton revealed that behind the words there had been a deeper meaning, both in terms of Macron’s gesture and Trump’s response to being overruled by the factual correction.

Mr Stanton told LBC’s Nick Ferrari: “Macron puts his hand onto his knee, onto his arm, but what that actually is really is the non-verbal equivalent of saying ‘Shut up, I’m speaking’.

“Then what happens is as Macron continues to speak one of the things I look for is something called a micro-expression and that’s a very fleeting flash of the real emotion that someone’s feeling and what Trump actually is conveying is contempt.

“He’s not happy at the fact that Macron spoke over him and we see this, it’s what we call a bi-lateral smile in psychology, so it’s a one-sided smile and Trump tends to make this quite a lot when he’s not happy.”

The interaction between the two men comes at an important time for Ukraine and Europe’s relation with the United States as Trump seeks a peace deal and the USA sides with Russia at the United Nations.

On the third anniversary of the beginning of the war in Ukraine the United Nations general assembly passed a resolution condemning Russia. However, this is was a motion voted against by North Korea, the USA, Russia, and Belarus, shocking the international community.

Meanwhile, a resolution proposed by the USA did not include any mention of any Russian aggression and simply called for “a swift end to the conflict” and “a lasting peace between Ukraine and the Russian Federation”.

The move is one of many in recent weeks which has seen the USA almost relieve Russia of responsibility for illegally invading another country. Last week, Trump was forced to back down after appearing to blame Ukraine for being invaded when the USA and Russia were condemned for not inviting the country for peace talks.

Trump said at a press conference: “I heard, ‘oh, well, we weren’t invited.’ Well, you’ve been there for three years ... You should have never started it. You could have made a deal.”

Speaking about any future peace talks following the passing of the USA’s Security Council resolution which the UK voted against, the UK’s ambassador to the United Nations Dame Barbara Woodward commented: “What, how and on what terms this war ends can only be decided by negotiations with Ukraine. No peace will be sustainable without Ukraine's consent.”