Body language analyst Judi James, a frequent media commentator on the gestures of politicians and public figures, has identified what she describes as a "full-on 'encasing'" hand clasp — a gesture she reads as signaling "control and leadership" — in footage of first lady Melania Trump and President Donald Trump hosting a Halloween event at the White House.

Speaking to the Irish Star, James homed in on a video in which Melania begins to turn and walk back inside the White House while Trump is holding her hand. He holds on harder to pull her back outside, then pats the top of their hands. Halloween gatherings at the White House are a longstanding seasonal tradition, typically built around the president and first lady greeting costumed trick-or-treaters on the grounds.

"Melania appears to have made a seasonal upgrade to her body language here, maybe to celebrate Halloween," James said.

"As she stands with her husband, whose pose is looking a little awkward, with his right arm hanging dully at his side and his body's center of gravity hanging somewhere over the front of his shoes, it's her reaching out an arm to take his hand firmly and when she does it's a full-on 'encasing' gesture with her hand on top in the clasp signaling control and leadership," she said.

James observed that Mrs. Trump did not simply encase the president's hand. She also began gently "stroking it or caressing it with her thumb, which is as strong a display of affection as you will possibly see from her to her husband in public."

That subtlety matters, the analyst explained: the touch is not for show, but her way of reassuring or soothing him.

"Melania then tugs at his hand slightly and Trump steps closer to her in an act of obedience. She then waves and smiles as though the closer pose suits her intentions," James continued.

"It's Melania also in a leadership role here as she cues them up to make their exit, stepping back to take her husband indoors," she said. "He ignores this intentional gesture to lean out and chat to his audience, but he then performs an act of acknowledgment, apology and positive affirmation and praise as he pats Melania's hand more than once as he joins her."

The first lady's wardrobe for the occasion also drew attention. Writing in The New York Times, fashion reporter Vanessa Friedman noted that Mrs. Trump skipped the pastels and floral prints traditionally associated with first ladies, appearing instead in a dark brown suede coat that served as her own "costume" for the Halloween event.

"Instead of what has become her increasingly clear signature black and white, she was, on this particular occasion, wearing — brown," Friedman wrote. "It was perhaps as much of a concession to costume as could be expected, given the image Mrs. Trump has been building in the second term."

That image, she wrote, is one of a C-suite executive rather than "the usual soft-power machinations of the first lady."

Read together, the two accounts underline how closely the first couple's public appearances are examined, with both analysts framing small details — a hand clasp, a coat color — as part of a deliberate public presentation.

In recent public appearances, Melania has expressed her fashion sense through "strict monochromatic pantsuits and white button-ups — the kind she wore in her official portrait and when she announced last week that she had brokered a cease-fire for a village in Ukraine — rather than the pastels and prints that former first ladies often wore to represent the human side of the presidency."