President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump are no strangers to awkward interactions in public. Their uneasy dynamic was once again on full display at a White House event on Monday.

During an executive order signing in the Rose Garden, several interactions, including an attempted kiss, a hand pat and a joke about her signature, quickly drew attention online.

The awkward moment the president turned to kiss the first lady was striking, said behavior analyst and body language expert Traci Brown.

“I don’t know the protocol here,” she told HuffPost. “But she doesn’t let him kiss her on the lips, only offering her cheek.”

again -- every single moment Trump is out in public these days is an SNL cold open come to life pic.twitter.com/QATB2zEDe8

Although protocol and cultural custom may limit public displays of affection between a president and first lady in certain contexts (particularly during foreign visits), those considerations don’t appear to be at play at this White House event.

Denise Dudley, a clinical psychologist and behavioral expert, watched the sequence closely.

“He’s aiming at her face. There’s no doubt. He’s not aiming at her hairline, on the side of her face,” she observed to HuffPost. “But she turns away. She doesn’t turn toward the cameras. They know where the cameras are. She turns away in the other direction.”

Dudley characterized the move itself as “absolute nonverbal avoidance” and “rejection” ― a potential sign that the first lady was trying to disengage.

“The most interesting movement is their handshake,” Brown said. “That’s more formal than what we’d see from a husband and wife. Her handshake isn’t strong. It breaks at the wrist. And then we see him use his signature pat. This is belittling.”

Dudley described how that moment unfolded.

“He takes his right hand and reaches down, knowing that her right hand is there, and they kind of engage in the handshake position off camera,” she said. “But now they’re up on camera, and they shake hands like they’ve done a deal or something. And then he does his hand pat thing.”

A hand pat can mean different things depending on the context and people involved.

“It can communicate affection, or reassuring someone if they’re afraid or they’re sad, or encouragement. You might pat your mom’s hand or a child’s hand,” Dudley said. “It can also be dominance.”

In this case, she believes the details point toward the latter.

“This pat is kind of brief. It’s downward. And it also isn’t like he looks her in the eyes and smiles. He just pats the top of her hand,” Dudley said. “Generally, we’d have to say that’s a gesture of authority.”

“I just see pats mostly as condescending in these sorts of situations,” Dudley added. “It’s a reminder that she’s not in a position of authority, in my opinion.”

Trump has used a similar pat with others, including world leaders like Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“He did the pat with Chinese President Xi and also Michael Dell recently,” Brown noted.

They’ve been married for a while, and they are just so out of sync.

She also pointed to what Trump said after patting his wife.

“He says, ‘Great job.’ He could mean that about two things ― either the signing or putting together the initiative he just passed,” Brown said.

Dudley compared it to a workplace moment.

“It’s like an employee evaluation or something,” she said. “He’s being an authority and has turned her into kind of an employee or someone to be rewarded in a condescending way. It diminishes her value. And it’s just a weird way to talk to a spouse.”

As the first lady prepared to sign the order, the president joked, “I don’t know if her signature means anything,” and the audience laughed. As she signed, she replied, “Yours is the most important.”

Brown tied the remark to the hand pat, saying the two moments together read as dismissive. He essentially communicated “that her signature didn’t matter,” she said.

Dudley also had a blunt read of the exchange.

“This is just utter public status diminishment,” she said. “That’s the only thing we can call it. And it’s not just body language ― we’ve got verbal content. We can hear it.”

“He’s doing what would be considered status signaling and diminishing her status,” she continued. “He’s signaling to everyone, ‘By the way, I’m letting her sign this, but I don’t know if it really means anything.’”

Even if the first lady’s signature is simply honorary in this case, “you don’t have to say that!” Dudley emphasized.

“We’re recognizing a woman’s contribution, but we’re emphasizing the man’s formal authority,” Dudley said. “He’s presenting this mixed message of giving her credit and having her sign it but then saying, ‘I don’t know if her signature means anything’ and yanking attention back to him.”

She said the first couple’s interactions display a pattern.

“It’s just so weird that this is a couple,” Dudley said. “They’ve been married for a while, and they are just so out of sync. He goes to kiss her. She turns her head.”

Although the public spotlight can affect displays of intimacy, that uneasiness tends to go away with time, she said.

“There’s just so much uncoordinated behavior between these two people,” Dudley said. “By now they should know how to do it. They’re in public all the time interacting, and it just is so awkward.”

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