What do doodles signify? This is an open question. Psychology professor Jackie Andrade at England’s University of Plymouth tested whether students who putter with a pen in class enhance their attention and memory. It did. But just the opposite proved true when Elaine Chan tested University of British Columbia students for visual recall when they mindlessly scribbled in class. It didn’t yet when it comes to character traits, Donald trump’s doodling seems wholly emblematic.
Even Trump’s scribbles make news
A Trump doodle is in the news because one sold at the Nate D.
Sanders Auctions in Los Angeles for $29,184 – more than triple the opening bid. Auction house founder Nate Sanders told the press, “Trump has that ‘wow’ power.” Sanders’ public relations director sees the high bid another way: “People will bid a lot of money for controversial political leaders’ artwork.” To put the sale price in perspective, a drawing for the comic strip “Prince Valiant went for $70, 461 at the same auction.
Building castles in the air
But I digress. Trump’s casual drawing exposes how his brain functions as surely as an MRI scan. His doodle is a vague outline of the Manhattan skyline with a slapdash representation of skyscrapers without any windows. So what you get is half-baked and cursory – just like his thinking.
And it’s not that he’s unfamiliar with edifices. As he said at a press conference in Iowa during his campaign to be president, “I’m a builder. I know how to build.” Given his ostentatious ways, you’d think his depiction of a skyline would include some embellishment, like a window. You don’t need draftsmanship to outline a small square.
Yet, isn’t a superficial drawing something a superficial person would draw?
All that glitters is not gold
Wait, there’s more. Trump signed his doodle in gold, which is also telling given his yen for glitz as in all the 24K gold flourishes throughout his New York penthouse. In fact, the only meticulously crafted part of his doodle is his signature and handwriting experts have made a lot of it.
Michelle Dresbold of the Secret Service’s Advanced Documentation program explained to Politico that the lack of curves in Trump’s signature and the profusion of angles indicate that he lacks empathy and a sign he “craves power, prestige and admiration.” And according to The Independent, British Institute of graphologists Tracey Trussell, the upright slant in the president’s signature “transmits wild ambition.” Clearly, when it comes to Trump, a doodle signifies like crazy.
