US President Donald Trump channelled his inner Meghan Markle with a subtle "power tap" during his meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin, a body language expert has claimed.
Trump and Putin walked away from Friday's summit in Alaska with no deal to end the war in Ukraine. Both leaders said during a press briefing that they had made progress on unspecified issues, although they offered no details and did not take questions.
Commenting on Trump's reaction to questions from reporters, body language expert Darren Stanton reportedly said there were subtle tells of a Meghan Markle-like "power tap."
Stanton, according to The Mirror, said: "I noticed Trump is tapping his fingers on the side of the podium is allowing Putin to have his little monologue, however, I think Trump again is displaying signs of impatience and just wanting to crack on."
Stanton explained: "I noticed Trump did what we call a power pat, it's a classic power gesture used by politicians and, in fact, Meghan Markle tends to use this quite a lot with Prince Harry, it looks quite a courteous gesture but basically it's when the flat of their hand on the other person, it appears innocuous, but it can be perceived as a power gesture to say, you know, 'I'm the more powerful man here'."
"But I think Trump's going to be doing his very best not to play mind games. And in fact, you know, after all the years I've assessed Trump and various politicians, Putin is the one person that Trump tends not to play smart with."
The expert continued: "You know, they're two silverbacks, they are too alpha males. And Putin gives as good as he gets, so it's going to be very interesting to see the non-verbal sort of behavioural gestures when the two men get together."