The picture said it all.
Vice President JD Vance looked “tense” when he posed next to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Trump during the former’s visit to the White House on Tuesday, according to a body language expert.
Vance, an ardent skeptic of US interventionism abroad and advocate of pursuing peace with Iran, sat in on the meeting after missing the earlier one with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to attend the service for late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC).
“There is a gap in physical distance with Vance. Vance seems to be outside of the group, and his smile is tense as you can see the tenseness in his lower jaw,” Lillian Glass, a Florida-based body language expert, told The Post.
“He does not appear to be that comfortable, as you can see his fingers are more curved on the left side, indicating tension and discomfort,” Glass, who has been an expert witness in federal and state courts on behavioral analysis, added.
“This is in stark contrast to Trump, whose hands and fingers are very relaxed.”
The White House meetings with Zelensky and Netanyahu took place behind closed doors with no press access.
Vance had infamously clashed with Zelensky during a Feb. 28, 2025 Oval Office meeting that was open to the press, though the two later mended fences.
The vice president recently ripped into members of Netanyahu’s cabinet last month for publicly trashing the memorandum of understanding with Iran. He has also reportedly ripped into some of Netanyahu’s claims behind the scenes.
“If I was in the Cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world,” Vance said during a White House press briefing.
Trump has also had tough conversations with Netanyahu at times. Ahead of their meeting, the president publicly complained about leaks that the Israeli leader intended to brief him about Iran’s nuclear activities at Pickaxe Mountain.
Despite that, Glass found that the images of Trump and Netanyahu from the Tuesday meeting signaled friendliness between the two.
She assessed that Trump looked “happy to see Netanyahu” and had a “genuine smile.”
“Trump is completely relaxed facially and body language-wise as he reads the card,” she said of the photo showing the president reading from his card. “His leg is pointed in the direction of Netanyahu, which means he genuinely likes Bib and feels very comfortable in his presence.”
As for the photos of the meeting with Zelensky, Glass found that both the Ukrainian president and Trump looked happy to see each other.
“Trump is genuinely happy as he has a genuine smile and leans his head towards Zelensky. Zelensky does the same, leans his head towards Trump,” she said of the photo showing them seated.
“What is very telling, a good sign, is that their elbows are touching one another. They are in physical contact, which means they genuinely like one another and are happy to be around one another.”
She noted that another photo showed Zelensky “cautious and contained” and that Secretary of State Marco Rubio also looked “guarded.”
Trump has seemingly warmed up to Ukraine over recent months as the US ally has proven to be remarkably formidable against Russia, particularly with its drone capabilities.
