A viral video compilation (below) of President Donald Trump repositioning items on tables has been circulating the internet, causing some to speculate whether or not the president has obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD).
The footage, which has more than 12,000 retweets and 20,000 likes on Twitter, shows the president slightly repositioning the drinks, coasters, nameplates and documents that belong to him and those sitting next to him.
“I do something similar – OCD and control issues,” one person commented on Twitter.
Another person said that the president partakes in another possible symptom: “random clapping when he walks.”
“He’s always moving stuff,” said another. “Have you ever noticed he adjusts every microphone he steps in front of?”
Trump has said before that he is a “germaphobe” and that he dislikes shaking hands because he is a “clean-hands freak” who feels “much better” after washing his hands, according to The Daily Mail.
Body language expert Patti Wood, the author of “Snap: Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language, and Charisma,” told The Daily Mail that she coaches some people to make a small adjustment before a speech or meeting to make a good impression but “not to the extent that he is doing it.”
“He is expanding his territory to show he is alpha and he is in charge,” Wood explained. “He is doing it both with side boundaries and boundaries in front of him. He is invading other people’s space — it’s very interesting.”
Not everyone was sold on the speculations that Trump might have the mental disorder.
Many people have pet theories,” commented mental health counselor and author Jeffrey Guterman under the video. “We don’t know what, if anything, this behavior means for sure, especially without his input.”
“He is literally the most focused [president] the world has ever seen,” another person wrote. “How delusional are you people?”
However, having a mental illness would not necessarily impact Trump’s ability to do his job, Burton Lee, George H.W. Bush’s presidential physician, told Politico.
“A president can function very well if he has a mild anxiety disorder or obsessive compulsive [disorder],” Lee said, adding that a president is “just like everybody else” when it comes to having mental illness on the job, according to Politico.
Indeed, they have functioned relatively well and under the radar with it. Approximately half of the first 37 presidents suffered from mental disorders and at least 27 percent did so while in office, found one study by Jonathan Davidson of the Duke University Medical Center, notes Psychology Today.