Anxious Trump veered off prepared speech as way to buck Davos: expert
Donald Trump made some improvisations in his Davos speech as a way of setting himself apart from other world leaders, a therapist has suggested.
Shelly Dar, a registered mental health therapist speaking to The Mirror US, claimed the president's intonation and erratic comments are all part of the act. The contrast he brought to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, could be seen in the latter parts of his appearance.
Dar said that, while Trump is initially tense for the presentation, it is a ploy to create dissonance with what the meeting is all about. She said, "What stands out from Trump is how rigidly controlled his presentation is.
"For the first 95 minutes we only see him from the elbows up. Both hands are anchored to the podium, his posture is rigid, and when you can’t see two-thirds of the body that limits our information."
Dar suggested Trump behind the podium manages to "conceal" the signals of anxiety which can be found in the lower body. But the contrast the president wished to show was more than obvious to the mental health therapist.
"He visibly exhales, his pace loosens and his pitch varies," Dar explained. "He defaults to his usual behaviors — boastfulness, anecdotes, scaling things up. That tells us something important. His confidence isn’t dependent on structure.
"He appears more confident when improvising than when delivering prepared remarks. I think it's well known that he doesn't like reading off an autocue.
"Overall his communication strategy prioritizes dominance over dialogue. He provides certainty over nuance, and his narrative control is built on assertion rather than persuasion."
This improvised commentary from Trump stands firmly against what Davos is all about. Dar added, "Davos is built on multilateralism, shared norms and collaborative language. So this contrast is deliberate.
"What stands out about Trump is the type of confidence that he shows. Behaviorally, he assumes authority that is already his. He doesn’t adapt to the room, but he expects the room to adapt to him.
"This is a dominant personality style, it's not a collaborative one. He's there to set the tone of the room."