It is not unusual for new presidents to sign executive orders immediately upon taking office. It is a way for the president to enact polices he and his party have long called for.
But unlike his predecessors, Trump has his own way of handling the signing ceremony. After placing his signature on an order, Trump will display the document for all to see.
Why does he feel the need to do this? My guess is that he is proud of his big, beautiful signature. In a strange way, it might be Trump’s attempt of showing the world John Hancock has nothing on him.
Handwriting experts have already chimed in on the presidential autograph. Politico interviewed an expert who detected in Trump’s writing not grandstanding ignorance but evidence of “bigheadedness, anger, and fear.” “The writer lacks empathy and craves power, prestige, and admiration,” the expert said.
Some non-experts are having fun with Trump’s squiggle, calling it less a sequence of letters than the impressionistic output of some rudimentary machine.
Others have suggested Trump is facilitating Kellyanne Conway’s injunction that we look at what lies within his heart by sharing his EKG results. Or maybe, as Jean Grae on Twitter concludes, these lines are “the sound wave of demons screaming.”
But perhaps Katy Waldman of Slate summed it up best … “this signature is a cry for help.”
Photos | pbs.org, thegrio.com
Frank Little says
About the only thing bigger than that signature is his swelled head.
John DeProspo says
Big signature … little hands. Coincidence?