THREAD: Body Language Analysis No. 4355: Comparing Donald Trump & the Tree of Life Synagogue to Ronald Reagan & the Challenger Disaster • • #BodyLanguage #BodyLanguageExpert #Nonverbal #EmotionalIntelligence #PittsburghSynagogue #TreeOfLifeSynagogue #EQ

1/ There's one crucial expression Donald Trump never once displayed during any of his statements regarding the recent mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh.

2/ It's certainly an expression he should have made - for it's indicative of the emotions of sadness, grief - and importantly, the empathy one feels for other peoples' suffering. This is true regardless of whether their suffering is emotional, physical, or both.

3/ First, look carefully at this image. On the evening of 28 January 1986, Ronald Reagan gave a speech regarding the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster (the video of the entire speech is included at the bottom of this tweet).

4/ Note that the muscles of President Reagan's central forehead are contracted and vectored upward (an elevated central forehead contraction [CFC]).

5/ Simultaneously, his medial (inner) eyebrows are also elevated - while at the same time, his outer (lateral) eyebrows are lowered. The corners of his mouth are also down-turned.

6/ Regardless of your political affiliation, if you were watching President Reagan's speech that night, you had no doubt Ronald Reagan was truly grieving for the families and loved-ones of those seven Astronauts.

7/ It's also not surprising (to those with modest or high empathy quotients) that just by looking at a picture or video of another person who is sad, suffering, or grieving (without even knowing any specifics) - will engender those same emotions in the viewer.

8/ Grieving is absolutely necessary for healing. When a leader grieves, they give both a momentary and historical personification to our collective grieving. It's in these moments when our grief is shared that perhaps we're most human.

9/ Reagan's entire speech regarding the Challenger Disaster:

10/ SUMMARY: Donald Trump has never displayed any expression indicative of empathy, sadness, or grieving - associated with the deaths of eleven people and wounding of six others at recent Tree of Life Synagogue mass shooting.

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11/ Nor did President Trump display these expressions after the Stoneman Douglas H.S. mass shooting, the Charlottesville Riots & the death there of Heather Heyer, the Texas First Baptist Church massacre, the Las Vegas mass shooting, or any other national tragedy.

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12/ Empathy, by definition, is never conveyed via a simple reading of a prepared statement. Empathy must be felt & must be displayed. Donald Trump has yet to publicly display any expressions of empathy, sadness, or grieving since he announced his candidacy on 16 June 2015.

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