Donald Trump Always Seems to Be Leaning Forward When He Stands, but Why?

Even among his supporters, there are some things about Donald Trump that may always be mysterious. How did he arrive at his particular style of speaking, and why does he seem so convinced that trade is a bad thing? These questions will be debated for years to come, as will the ongoing mystery around the president's posture.

Although this isn't always the case, many people who watch Trump closely have noticed that the president always seems to be leaning at least slightly forward when he's standing. Here's what we know about why that might be.

There's no conclusive answer as to why Trump always seems to be leaning forward or standing on his toes when he's standing, but it's definitely one of his more peculiar traits. Although there has been some speculation that it might be a medical condition, we might never know that for sure, in part because Trump has made it pretty clear that he will never be releasing accurate medical records to the public.

It's possible that he has something called hyperlordosis, which essentially means that his spinal cord is bent too far and causes him to lean forward. There are also a number of other potential diagnoses, although it's impossible to narrow in on any one.

What seems just as possible, though, is that the explanation isn't medical at all, and instead has more to do with how Trump dresses himself.

The most obvious explanation is probably that Donald Trump wears lifts in his shoes. Those lifts leave the front of his foot close to the ground, but raise his heels higher, and as a result, they tilt his entire body forward.

People typically wear lifts for reasons that have mostly to do with vanity. They want to appear taller and therefore more imposing, and so they add height through a lift in their shoe.

Of course, most people who wear lifts would never cop to it, and two things that are definitely true of Trump are that he is vain enough to wear lifts and also too proud to ever admit to it. That means we'll likely never know for sure whether the lift explanation is correct or not, but it does seem overwhelmingly plausible that that's the reason he has such an unusual posture.

It's also possible, although perhaps more unlikely, that Trump stands that way for some reason that's intentional. Maybe he thinks that leaning forward makes him more intimidating or approachable, or he simply decided to stand that way because he thought it made him look better.

There are certainly plenty of politicians who have an awkward posture for one reason or another. There are few, though, who stand exactly like Trump. What seems clear, though, is that Trump doesn't care much if he's captured standing in this unusual way. Few people are more obsessed with their image than he is, and he's been standing that way for basically his entire life as a politician.