Donald Trump, 72, was interviewed by his old friend Piers Morgan on Friday, and it aired on prime-time TV this evening. The Good Morning Britain presenter first met Trump in 2008 when he appeared on America’s celebrity version of The Apprentice, which he went on to win.
But tonight, the news wasn’t about their friendship. ITV dedicated 45 minutes to Piers’ interview with the President, which took place in Switzerland.
The 52-year-old journalist grilled the President on his much-discussed Twitter habits, potentially divisive views of the world and Donald Trump even spoke about Prince Harry’s US fiancee Meghan Markle.
But what were the men saying with their body language during the interview?
Body language expert Judi James told Express.co.uk: “At some moments during tonight’s interview it was almost as though someone had stolen the real Donald Trump and replaced him with a much more diplomatic version.
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“Gone were the show-boating hand gestures, the puffed-up alpha posturing and the sulky demeanour when someone challenged his views. Instead we had a man sitting upright but with his feet tucked under his chair, rocking backward and forward slightly and using a constant eye-dart to his right as he spoke.”
The body language expert revealed she believed the President’s “power-posturing” was still there but “massively toned down”.
She said: “He power-patted Morgan at the start to let us know who was really in charge and he instigated the handshake at the end to signal time was up.”
Judi added that Trump’s natural inclination seemed to be to clasp his hands between his splayed legs and wring them slightly or rub his thumbs together.
She said: “Each time he then seemed to quickly move them into a steepled gesture, which is all about power and status.
“Sometimes the steepled fingers would tap together in a metronomic gesture of what looked like impatience or irritation but the stand-out signalling came from his red and rather tired-looking eyes.”
Judi explained: “He spoke fondly of our Prime Minister yet his body language, when he spoke about Macron, registered genuine friendship and pleasure, with the face-softening smile and the repeat of the name ‘Emmanuel’.
“Overall this was a much more political and strategic-sounding Trump although the body language often veered towards pure salesman.”
Piers interviewed Trump at the World Economic Forum in Davos, and preview clips were aired on ITV’s Good Morning Britain on Friday morning ahead of the full broadcast of the interview.
It was then that the President said he would be prepared to apologise for retweeting inflammatory videos by the far-right Britain First group.
Trump said he “knew nothing” about Britain First when he made the social media postings.
“I knew nothing about them and I know nothing about them today other than I read a little bit,” he told Piers.
“Perhaps it was a big story in Britain, perhaps it was a big story in the UK, but in the United States it wasn’t a big story.”
He explained he only the retweeted the post because of the threat posed by radical Islamic extremists.
Theresa May criticised the President for sharing the controversial videos at the time and said it was “the wrong thing to do.”
This in turn prompted Trump tell the PM to focus on “terrorism” in the UK. He later pulled out of a visit to Britain to open the new US embassy building in London, leading to speculation of a diplomatic rift.
President Trump – The Piers Morgan Interview’ will be shown on ITV+1 at 11pm and is available to watch on the ITV Hub.