Clinical and forensic psychologist Dr. John Paul Garrison, known as "Dr. G." and recognized for his analysis of nonverbal communication and body language, has reviewed President Donald Trump's behavior at recent rallies, where the president has begun directing insults at his own audience. His assessments are drawn from reviewing footage of the appearances.

At a campaign appearance in Tennessee in support of Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R), Trump told the crowd, "There's such love. I mean. It's amazing. When you stand up here, it's just like…the love. I could say the stupidest things and you'd clap. 'Oh, I love you so—' It's true." The behind him laughed and applauded.

Garrison said the moment closely resembled an earlier occasion on which Trump remarked, "We have an extremely high IQ audience for a change. For a change. It's very nice."

In his assessment, Garrison called it ironic that the audience responded by "clapping after a thinly veiled insult, basically saying that they would clap for anything."

"You notice how at the end he said it's true because he's emphasizing the fact there is unconditional loyalty no matter what he says," he noted. "Not surprisingly, he goes on to say that he doesn't say stupid things, but what this does is this is using authority and dominance, and framing it as humor. Just a really wild thing to watch."

A lateral jaw movement

Garrison's attention turned to a physical cue as Trump spoke about his renaming of lakes and portions of the ocean: the president's jaw shifted to the left.

"Sometimes we see that when people are either on stimulant medication or taking stimulants of some kind. But there can also be a neurological implication as well," Garrison said. "Right after he said Lake America, you saw it again. When he gets excited, we're more likely to see this."

"So, aside from the fact that something like a stimulant could affect this type of behavior, this can also be an impairment and motor functioning," he continued after watching the clip several more times. "As we've seen, there are a lot of impairments in functioning of the arms and the face can also be connected with that. So, it's very possible that this is just all part of the same dysfunctional pathway, but right now it's expressing itself with this lateral jaw movement."

Both explanations, as Garrison presented them, were possibilities rather than firm conclusions.

According to Garrison, the movement occurs fairly regularly.

'Almost manic'

Compared with other rallies, Trump seemed "more excited" on this occasion, and more unusual behaviors stood out, increasingly "ridiculous and over the top." Garrison described the display as an example of what happens when a person struggles to inhibit his behavior.

The psychologist also flagged a moment in which Trump, looming behind Blackburn as she spoke, closed his eyes, opened his mouth and moved it around while keeping it open. Garrison said the gesture could stem either from a lack of awareness that he was being watched or from an inability to inhibit his behavior.

"There's a very complex system of muscles around the mouth," Garrison explained. "So, sometimes we see dysfunction around the mouth when people have these sort of neurodegenerative diseases or when people are in neurological decline. They have a harder time controlling their tongue, sometimes a harder time controlling their jaw. But this type of behavior certainly seemed like something he was having a hard time controlling. Either that or he was feeling euphoric at the time, and I think that's less likely."

What struck Garrison as odd was that Trump was not only making the unusual mouth movements, but did so with his eyes closed and while leaning back. Such tics, he said, tend to appear on days when Trump seems more energized and "almost manic."

"So, on nights like this he seems more emotionally dysregulated," Garrison said. "He seems more excitable but also seems more agitated. So, he just seems to be feeling more in general. And once again, when we see people with various dysfunctions neurologically, that's something that we look at, their ability to regulate their emotion, their ability to inhibit behaviors. And he seems to be struggling more and more with all of these because what we've seen in the past, obviously, he's made some wild remarks during rallies and made wild remarks publicly, but now they're getting clustered together in much greater concentration."

Perseveration and reinforcement

Perseveration — the repetition of the same stories or topics over and over, as though stuck on them — is a pattern Trump exhibits frequently, with "wild remarks" that are "getting clustered together in much greater concentration." The clip Garrison focused on came early in the speech.

When an audience responds with approval, Garrison said, the behavior is reinforced. "So, as you could hear, the clapping was followed up by him getting more grandiose. And what gets scary about something like this is when you have someone with poor judgment who's not able to regulate their emotions, and when you have people around them saying, 'Yes, you're doing a great thing,' it could potentially lead him to making even worse decisions. So, even though this exact situation is at a rally, you could see something similar to this behind closed doors or with other people that agree with ideas that he has," he explained.

Related primary material: Alternet's coverage of Trump's body language and the related video on YouTube. Source: Alternet.