{"id":14711,"date":"2026-02-23T12:50:46","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T12:50:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=14711"},"modified":"2026-02-23T12:50:46","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T12:50:46","slug":"we-asked-women-bodybuilders-about-donald-trump-jr-s-posture-and-mysterious-phantom-lats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=14711","title":{"rendered":"We Asked Women Bodybuilders About Donald Trump Jr.’s Posture and Mysterious ‘Phantom Lats’"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Illustration:Illustration: Jim Cooke; Photos: Getty <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Donald Trump Jr., the president\u2019s eldest and likely most disappointing son, really loves Instagram<\/a>. His feed is full of tribute pictures of his father<\/a>, racist or otherwise bigoted right-wing memes<\/a>, and the occasional selfie. And it\u2019s in the latter category that a pattern emerges: observe enough photos of Trump Jr. and you\u2019ll notice that he stands as if he has far bigger muscles than he actually possesses. You might call it awkward posture, but I\u2019d call it a phantom lat.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t Based on his public social media presence, you can fairly conclude that Don Jr. enjoys an active lifestyle: he is an occasional gym rat (despite poor form<\/a>) with a penchant for outdoor activities<\/a>. He stays busy, but is by no means ripped as a result of these things. In fact, he recently tweeted<\/a> rather affectionately about his \u201cdadbod\u201d (and is even using it to sell<\/a> Trump-branded garbage). <\/p>\n

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And fair enough! There\u2019s no reason a person has to be ripped. But why stand<\/em>\u2014arms raised and slightly rounded, imagine an invisible barrel stowed under there\u2014as if you\u2019re ripped? <\/p>\n

This of course isn\u2019t something isolated to Don Jr. Look around at your local gym and you\u2019re likely to see a lot of men pretending to have muscles so large that they can\u2019t properly rest their arms at their sides. In order to learn more about this particular manifestation of masculine anxiety and self-delusion, Jezebel reached out to women bodybuilders and trainers to discuss the mysteries of the phantom lat.<\/p>\n

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\u201cPeople who normally do typically walk around like that with their arms flared out and their chests pumped up\u2014they\u2019re imitating the bodybuilders and the jacked guys who have the lat muscles and are actually unable to put their arms down,\u201d Lu Faustin, a New York-based bodybuilder and celebrity trainer, told Jezebel. \u201cYou\u2019ve got those folks who think it\u2019s cool to walk around that way or have that sense of worth where they think that they\u2019ve got these big muscles.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t Marie Allegro, a New York-based trainer and bodybuilding staging coach, agreed that Don Jr. is an average-sized guy who is trying to look far bigger: \u201cSome guys are insecure about their physique and <\/strong>try to make themselves look bigger by standing and walking with their feet really wide like they\u2019re bowlegged.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why do men do this, since it\u2019s clear from just looking at them that they could actually put their arms down if they wanted to? Faustin has a hunch. <\/p>\n

\u201cWith Donald Trump Jr., I feel like his life is plagued with insecurities, so trying to measure up to his father\u2019s approval, he wants to be that big strong man.\u201d<\/p>\n

Faustin says she regularly sees this with new clients who are men. They walk through the door with puffed up chests, arms out, displaying that they\u2019re ready to train\u2014and terrified of showing physical weakness.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook at that,\u201d Faustin said after I showed her a picture of the Trump men, including Jared Kushner, at Buckingham Palace. \u201cSee how he\u2019s angling his body? His whole demeanor\u2014he\u2019s trying to out angle everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t It\u2019s not just men with slight or \u201cdadbod\u201d physiques who do this. In her line of work, Allegro says she regularly sees big, hulking men putting on the same airs despite their already muscled physiques.<\/p>\n

Similarly, Faustin says her training sessions can sometimes turn into therapy sessions: \u201cYou\u2019re the CEO of this large multinational corporation, but you\u2019re crying to me right now about the stress,\u201d she said. \u201cThey can just lose themselves in these sessions, put their guards down.\u201d<\/p>\n

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But their willingness to be vulnerable is often short lived: \u201cWhen you\u2019re done, you see them put the mask back on. They stand back up, straighten up, flex, flare their lats, and you\u2019re like\u2026 wait a minute!\u201d<\/p>\n

The Trump brand of masculinity similarly values the projection of strength even when the whole world can see that it\u2019s a clumsy front. \u201cWhen guys have low confidence levels, they\u2019ll try to make themselves look bigger or larger than life by over exaggerating themselves, and that makes them look worse<\/em>,\u201d Allegro noted. \u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate. It takes a very confident and very secure man to feel comfortable in their skin.\u201d<\/p>\n

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