Is Melania and Donald Trump's marriage crumbling before our eyes? Body language expert Judi James analyses First Lady's 'shudder'

As a former model the 'smile-and-wave' role of First Lady should be a walk in the park for the very elegant Melania Trump but it's her visual role as adoring wife that seems to be tripping her up in terms of her body language.

Thanks to the unrelentingly romantic poses of the Obamas, who knew a thing or two about couple's choreography, the Donald and Melania duet appears increasingly awkward and distant.

There was that moment during the inauguration where Melania placed a seemingly protective gloved hand of ownership on the President's torso but then there was also that monumental face drop during the service plus the agonising gift moment when the Trumps met the Obamas at the White House and poor Melania struggled alone.Melania's rally speech for her husband should have done a lot to boost her confidence as the crowd roared with approval when she took to the stage. You can seen her nerves beginning to evaporate as she raises one hand in recognition and greeting before performing a swift preening gesture with her hair.

That hand movement plus the small, spontaneous-looking smile and laugh that follows suggests Melania was both surprised and pleased by the cheers and about to get into her stride. It was at that point that Trump patted her on her bare arm and the micro-gestures of her facial expression suggest the anxiety returned in an instant. Her eyes look down and it could look almost as though she shudders.We've seen no signs of any easy-going PDAs from the Trumps so far and even the more deliberate rituals like hand-holding and touching that we saw in the early days appear to be getting rarer as Donald storms into Alpha mode using the kind of stand-alone poses and signals of a business tycoon keen to prove who is boss.

Part of the disconnect between the Trump's body language signals seems to be down to the lack of what are called tie-signs. These are small touches, glances and nods that an established couple will use as a silent but powerful form of communication when they are out in public or at social events.If you watch the Obamas in action you see a team of two communicating silently all the time. When the Trumps visited you can see the Obama team in action with their awkward-looking guests, gently touching, nodding and steering to help make them feel comfortable and at ease. But for Donald Trump the presidential role doesn't seem to include any tie-signs to help choreograph his First Lady.By pacing behind her on the stage as she prepared to make her speech in Florida Donald would have been unknowingly undermining rather than boosting her confidence. Pacing implies impatience and when someone walks behind us we feel anxious because we can't see them.Melania probably needed her husband in sight to offer approval signals but that pat on the arm must have felt as though it came from nowhere and could as easily have felt like a message to get on with it as a sign of warmth and support.

Nobody wants to see the Trumps performing the kind of forced, toe-curling PDAs that politicians often perform with their partners but as Trump hurtles on in his chariot of power the visual disconnect with Melania does seem to be growing at a time when you'd normally expect to see them welded in mutual support.