President Donald Trump was booed twice at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium on Sunday — once when he appeared on the video boards before kickoff, and again when he walked onto the field for Spain’s World Cup victory celebration.

By the time the trophy had been presented, the U.S. president still hadn’t left the stage — and body language experts who reviewed the footage don’t fully agree on the reason, but agree about how it looked.

Since the United States was one of the hosts of this year’s World Cup, Trump joined FIFA President Gianni Infantino to present the trophy to Spain after they beat Argentina 1-0. But Trump notably did not leave the stage after the trophy was presented.

This is not the first time Trump has done this. He stayed onstage for the entirety of English Premier League team Chelsea’s celebration at the FIFA Club World Cup championship last summer.

Dan Mullan via Getty Images

Spain prepares to lift the FIFA World Cup Winner’s Trophy as FIFA President Gianni Infantino directs a seemingly oblivious U.S. President Donald Trump.

It could be an example of the president misunderstanding — or ignoring — nonverbal social cues, Abbie Marono, a behavioral scientist, told HuffPost, especially since the environment must have been extremely loud because of music and cheers.

“Nonverbal communication is constantly shifting: People adjust their position, orientation and use of space based on what others are doing,” Marono said.

Referring to footage from after the trophy presentation to Spain, she said that “the team begins to reposition, the focus moves back toward the players, people around Trump turn their bodies away from him, and Infantino appears to give him an increasingly clear gesture to move. Trump does not immediately respond to those cues.”

Behavioral psychologist Denise Dudley points to “cue stacking,” a term that describes the accumulation of multiple, overlapping signals that someone should act in response to.

“There is so much cue stacking for Trump to get off the stage,” Dudley told HuffPost. Dudley points to how Infantino appeared to physically grab his arm twice to guide him off-stage. “He’s being told, ‘Come on over here, let’s go this way,’ and he just ignores it.”

Dudley said Trump’s brief glances at Infantino trying to move him suggest the president may have understood what was being asked.

“He looks at him for a second, and looks again when his back and elbow are touched, and then he looks away again — like, ‘I’m not doing it,’” she said. “I think that’s the look of someone who’s saying, ‘I’m not going to go, I’m staying here.’”

Getty Images

Donald Trump appears to resist cues to more offstage at the trophy presentation.

However, Susan Constantine, a body language expert, came away with a different read. “I don’t think he realized he was being cued off; I think he misinterpreted it,” Constantine told HuffPost. “He looked back, and he was a little uncertain. There was part of him that wanted to stay, and part of him that wasn’t sure if he was really being cued to leave.”

Constantine pointed to Trump’s facial expressions as evidence that he’s more confused and excited than intentionally calculating the move.

“You could see his eyebrows were lowered — that’s a sign of intensity — and it matches the compressed lips, which is a form of suppression,” she said. “But he was broadly smiling. It was a very intense moment, and it was leaking out through the smile.”

Constantine also noted that while the players were turning away from him onstage, his back was also somewhat turned to the players, so he might not have noticed the nonverbal cues.

Marono points to how, in the footage, Trump is “physically central, keeps an upright and settled posture, and shows very little urgency to give up the space.”

“This may be a territorial display and an attempt to assert status,” Marono said. “People in positions of authority are often used to others adapting around them, rather than feeling pressure to adapt themselves.”

The reception Trump received, not only from the crowds but some of the players, throughout the night doesn’t make Spain’s decision to edit him out of the photo all that surprising. During the medal presentation, Argentine defender Cristian Romero did not shake hands with Trump after collecting his medal from Infantino.

“If somebody deliberately does not shake the president’s hand, that is a deliberate cold shoulder,” Constantine said. “A handshake is a multicultural gesture — everyone in the world knows how to read it.”

Constantine added that Romero’s decision likely reflects his own views, not the team’s.

Romero wasn’t alone in wrestling with this moment. Spanish striker Borja Iglesias had also expressed conflicting feelings over whether he would shake Trump’s hand during the trophy presentation.

“There’s a protocol and a commitment to fulfill out of politeness, even though what my gut tells me to do differs from what I should do,” Iglesias told Spanish outlet Panenka on Saturday.

“I don’t want to go to prison,” he said. “I hope to greet him at a time when we are all very happy, and that it passes very quickly and I can forget about it.”

Trump’s friendship with the FIFA president goes back years.

There were three World Cup host nations this year; Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum were also at Sunday’s match and attended the trophy ceremony, but Trump was the only leader who appeared to linger longer on stage.

“We will be together with the president, enjoying the final and handing the trophy to the winner, of course, together,” Infantino told Swiss outlet blue Sport in June, referring to Trump. “That’s always been the plan — and that’s how it’s always been done in the past — for the president of the country hosting the final to present the trophy together with the FIFA president.”

In 2022, Qatari head of state Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani joined Infantino onstage to present the trophy to Argentina after the team’s win over France.

Trump is close friends with Infantino. The pair recently made headlines after Trump called the FIFA president about American Folarin Balogun’s red card during the Bosnia and Herzegovina game. FIFA lifted Balogun’s one-game suspension so he could play in the U.S.’s next game against Belgium. FIFA rules typically do not allow teams to appeal red card calls.

FIFA then had to give a replica of the trophy to Chelsea, the team that won the tournament.

A clarification has been made to note that Carney, Sheinbaum and Trump all appeared at the trophy ceremony.