Articles & Insights into the world of handwriting.

Donald Trump’s Signature – what does it “really” say about him?

Donald Trump's signature - what it says about him

There has been a lot of to and fro in the media about Donald Trump’s signature ever since that now famous tweet by J.K. Rowling.

Websites like Huffington Post and Mashable had a field day discussing JK Rowlings’ tweet about Donald Trump’s large signature in which she said: “ I didn’t believe in graphology until about three minutes ago.”

Also in the tweet was a reference to an article in handwriting-graphology.com that had some very negative things to say about large handwriting.

Now although the inference was clear from the picture, Rowling did not specifically mention any direct correlation between Donald Trump’s signature and the negative personality features mentioned in the post.

However, there were those who did extract some choice descriptions from the following:

On the negative side, large writing means that we are before an arrogant person, conceited, haughty, who needs to exhibit compliments and recognitions, tyrant tendencies, exhibitionist and phony personality that may become megalomaniac with lack of a critical sense. The insecurity and inferiority complex and lack of self-esteem may be compensated with a large writing.

When the signature is larger than the text, this reflects pride, consciousness of self-value and on the negative side it shows the individual has more ambitions than real possibilities.” (This appears to be a rather clumsy translation from the Spanish website)

There can be no argument with that. But at the same time it should be clear that there are many positive features in large handwriting too. However, these were not mentioned in the discussions and various articles that ensued.

Now I am not writing this in order to defend Trump. My interest in this is purely graphological and not political. I believe that it is important to maintain an impartial attitude to handwriting without using it to strip out one aspect to back up or justify a particular point of view. Furthermore, it is not within the province of graphology to pass judgement on any individual no matter how famous or pedestrian.

So here is another clip from the same article I mentioned just to show you that there is another way of interpreting large handwriting.

On the Positive side: “Personalities with great skills for communication, extroversion, physical dynamism, vitality sociability and generosity. The are expressive individuals who look forward to connecting to others, optimistic, and they are not characterized for being too reflexive (first they do, then they think), self-confident, who trust their own value. Ability for command and suitable for management positions, they have excellent panoramic vision of situations and an elevated self-concept.” (Again I must mention that this is a  translation from the Spanish.)

What I am trying to do here is to set the record straight with regard to the significance of impartiality which is an important tenet of graphology.

Granted that when we look at Trump’s signature in the picture above, the first thing that we see is size. But in this case his signature is intentionally large on the signed document which is being held up for the TV cameras. Furthermore, with regard to the darkness of the stroke, clearly some type of felt-tipped pen was used in order to give the signature further prominence.

Which is why in all fairness we cannot presume that the size of that signature is a true reflection of Trump’s regular handwriting. You have to look at his signature in relation to a page of his regular handwriting which is not on display here.

In fact size is but one aspect. There are other elements in the signature too that would need to be taken into consideration to give a more balanced point of view.

The most striking of these are the angular formations, the strong downstrokes, the discrepancy between the length of some upper zone strokes and the middle zone and the complete absence of any roundedness. Adamant and unyielding one would infer. Other dominant traits that stand out are extreme confidence, power and aggression.

But in any case, if we want to arrive at a more comprehensive interpretation we would need to look at a page of his everyday, normal handwriting to which his signature has been appended. Only when seen in context can we make a proper assessment of the significance of Donald Trump’s signature.

Of  even greater interest is the surprising similarity between Trump and Melania’s handwriting. The felt-tipped pen is largely responsible. Other similarities can be seen in the initial strokes , the straight downstrokes and the angularity. But there the similarity ends.

Because while we see power in the word, Trump in the first signature, it is not at all present in the second signature which is controlled and constrained.

It would seem that while Malania is more comfortable with her first name the Trump name is a little overwhelming.

Trump Melania signatures

The illustration from the UK Daily Mirror.

 

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Comments

  • Carole Ann Rule
    May 14, 2018

    Well said, Sandra. For one thing anyone who has accomplished all he has in his life has to have the arrogance etc that many consider negative. But, the paragraph on the positive side fits even better what we have seen since he became President. He is NOT a politician and this is part of what we see in his writing but a man who sees a problem and goes to work to correct it. He must find to slowness of government mechinations so frustrating.

    • Sandra Fisher
      May 14, 2018

      Hi Carole – Interesting observation. The problem with analyzing a celebrity’s handwriting is that it’s far too easy to read into the writing what you know from the media and/or hearsay. It’s my opinion that a graphologist should start every analysis with a tabula rasa or a clean slate. Not easy of course!

    • Tev Castro
      September 1, 2022

      I have been studying how to become a state national and have learned the purpose of our name in all caps and our name in lower case, there is a difference. Most americans don’t realize that the government knows this difference and put our name on our birth certificate in all caps for a purpose. It means you are dead; dead in the water. If you go to a cemetery and look at the gravestones you will notice 90% of the names are in all caps, because they are dead. To become a state national I am going to put my name in lower case, to signify I am a free people. Then I looked at donald trumps signature and noticed he is scribbling out the capital D and capital T. Then I looked at malanias signature and noticed she uses a lower case t in her last name. 🙂

  • J Christopher
    May 17, 2018

    I find it interesting how the extremities of his signature have many spear-points to them, but in the centre there are rounded closed pockets. That would indicate a certain protectiveness over that which he loves, and that the aggressiveness that he has displayed to the media is not indicative of his innermost feelings.

    • Sandra Fisher
      May 17, 2018

      J. Christopher – Interesting thought though I don’t see any roundedness. But aggression does appear in his handwriting as a strong and dominant trait.

  • bhupesh
    May 17, 2018

    i have came across DT signature where in middle zone prominent. This signature is totally different grapho traits.. as far as middle zone is concern.

  • bhupesh
    May 17, 2018

    T cross bar is major leadership trait surprisingly it is missing …

  • Karen Hughes
    May 17, 2018

    Sandra, you are a breath of fresh air amid all the hoop-lah! I am definitely not an expert, but my understanding is that the real person is in the everyday handwriting of the author – the signature is the person he or she wants others to see. At first glimpse of the signature, this person seems to be organized in his thinking, knows what he stands for, and exhibits traits of marked genius. He gravitates toward people, loves a good debate, and has good communication skills. As you say, it seems to be written with a felt-tip, so it would be difficult even on close examination to determine the amount of emotion involved that would have an effect on the traits, but even so, the sharp, evenly spaced strokes, the level baseline, indicate a loyal, persistent, inquisitive, decisive person who will not give up until he finds answers. Continually moving forward – perhaps like a steamroller. This person’s last name seems to be important to him, and I find particularly interesting the way the middle initial is ‘hidden’ or ‘protected’ – what are your thoughts on this?

    • Sandra Fisher
      May 17, 2018

      Hi Karen
      I’m happy to hear from you as always and thank you for the vote of confidence. I agree with much of your assessment on Trump’s handwriting. There are strong signs of determination and intelligence (I don’t know about genius but he has a very investigative mind.) Then again there are also strong mitigating signs such as irritation, a lot of impatience and as I mentioned before in one of these comments, decided aggression. And may I add bull-headedness just to round things up! Your steamroller comment is spot on. This is just to balance everything out as he is a very complex character. As you know, it’s so important to look at all aspects in order to reach an unbiased and impartial view.

  • Linda Lee
    July 22, 2018

    Your signature is your badge to the world. Yes, how you want the world to see you. I would like to see his regular writing as yes, the t-bar is missing here or perhaps it is a reflection in this signature of how he wants the world to see him too? Much determination and analytical indications and then tee pee formations indicative of stubbornness. The last p so probing into the upper zone…loves to debate.

  • Tere C.A
    April 2, 2020

    Muy logrado el análisis que ha realizado…Le quita la máscara por todos los lados. Un saludo.

  • Nancy Howard
    April 18, 2021

    I just came across this. I was so glad to see some of the positive comments. I’ve found that even professional graphologists often give Trump a bad review. I’m happy to see that some here are willing to see the good and the bad. In the past, at election time there were often many reviews of the presidential candidates. Not so this past election. It was tear into Trump, but don’t say anything about Biden or Kamala. I like to analyze politicians handwriting to get a true picture. The only sample I found of Kamala Harris’ writing was her signature, and a tattoo on someone’s arm. Maxine Waters is interesting. Elon Musk is also interesting thinking of his scientific bent.

    • Graphology World
      April 18, 2021

      We are all made up of different traits – some good and some bad.The important thing is to try to remain as objective as possible in our assessments and to look purely at the handwriting without being influenced by the biography.

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