US President Donald Trump’s appearance alongside new UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson at the G7 summit gave their liberal opponents the opportunity to sharpen their snark and post some viral but predictable memes.
The two golden-haired heads of state appeared to hit it off over breakfast on Sunday morning, with Trump calling Johnson “the right man for the job” to deliver Brexit, and Johnson congratulating Trump on the US’ economy. The two leaders gave each other a quick ‘you da man’ finger-point, which was seized on by meme creators.
Aside from the mockery, the inevitable ‘Johnson is Trump’s poodle’ and ‘lapdog’ memes began circulating.
Analyzing a later appearance of the two, the body language experts of the internet declared that Johnson had deliberately made himself appear smaller beside Trump, a symbolic move of deference to the US leader.
Though Johnson did make a failed attempt to lead Trump aside at the bottom of the stairs, the British PM stands at 5’9” (1.75m) next to Trump’s towering 6’3” (1.9m). Short of wearing a pair of stilts, there is nothing Johnson could have done to stand eye-to-eye with Trump.
However, the body language of the powerful always comes up for analysis at events like the G7. Time columnist Ian Bremmer described Trump’s arms-folded pose at a later meeting of leaders as “petulant,” like the iconic shot from last year’s summit in Canada, which appeared to show German Chancellor Angela Merkel telling off a defiant Trump.
A picture can easily be taken out of context though, and that’s exactly what happened last year in Canada. Blaming “Fake News Media” for circulating the image in question, Trump responded by tweeting out a series of other pictures showing himself and his G7 comrades in better spirits.
Aside from sending subliminal signals of dominance, as the armchair psychologists of Twitter suggested, Trump pledged to do a “very big trade deal” with post-Brexit Britain. Though both leaders spoke warmly about their meeting, Johnson cautioned that such a deal will not be “smooth sailing,” and will be contingent on the US opening up its markets.
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