Men in the mirror: Trump and Xi’s suits put ‘chameleon effect’ to test in Beijing | Donald Trump
Donald Trump and Xi Jinping mirrored each other in strikingly similar outfits when they met for a welcome ceremony in Tiananmen Square this week with the world’s gaze on them.
Both were blue, single-breasted, and had flap pockets. Both had two buttons, with only the top one off. They were both wearing red ties.
They were surrounded by a number of men in different suits: Stephen Miller had his usual pocket square; Pete Hegseth wore flashy striped ties with Scott Bessent; Elon Musk was wearing a green tie; There were blue shirts and black suits. We make their symmetry more visually striking.
Both leaders were hoping to achieve geopolitical gains and trade deals, and matching cases may have helped, according to Enda Young, founder and CEO of the Center for Negotiation and Leadership and lecturer in negotiation at the University of Oxford. “There is good evidence from social psychology that people tend to warm up more quickly to people who are similar to them,” he says. “This could be behavior, language, posture, or even appearance and clothing.”
During negotiation, he says, “Mirror often works on a subconscious level. Similar clothing, colors, or body language can signal rapport, shared status, or mutual respect before anyone speaks.”
Young points to research on the “chameleon effect” that “also shows that subtle imitation tends to increase compliance and cooperation,” and he also cites the work of Robert Cialdini, author of: Impact: Psychology of Persuasionand “the ‘liking’ principle, where similarity tends to increase trust and openness to influence”.
It is not the first time that political leaders have mirrored each other in risky moments. When France’s Emmanuel Macron and Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva spend three days in the Amazon rainforest in 2024 talking about ecological conservation and the global minimum tax rate for the world’s richest. Their “brotherhood” was viewed through the lens of matching outfits (and hand holding).
Perhaps it was the other way around when Volodymyr Zelensky was warned to wear a black military-style tracksuit instead of a suit in the Oval Office in a disastrous exchange between the two leaders last year. When Zelenskyy returned months later, he appeared to have made a diplomatic concession by wearing a military-style “suit.”
Matchmaking can go wrong in other ways, too; For example, when Liz Truss gave her first speech as prime minister to the Conservative party conference wearing a dress that resembled that of a fictional dictator.
“The important caveat to projection is that it only really works if it feels natural. If it seems constructed or too deliberate, people tend to react against it,” Young says.
It is important, then, that this view is not a separation for both presidents. While Trump’s look rarely differs from the outfit he wore for this event, there is more variety in Xi’s wardrobe, including a simple windbreaker as well as the more traditional Mao outfit that Xi wore to a military parade alongside Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un in Beijing last year.
Perhaps the wardrobe mirroring worked after the initial talks, as Xi said: “The two countries should be partners, not rivals.” On the second day, when no clear decision had yet been announced, the men were “real friends” according to Trump, but they were no longer mirrors to each other; Xi continued to dress and style the same way, but Trump’s jacket was open, with a striped blue tie hanging underneath.
