The second presidential debate on Sunday, Oct. 9, between Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democratic nominee and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton featured a town hall-style format in which both candidates could sit on high-back stools, surrounded by a circle of undecided voters who were there to pose questions to them.

While a more formal debate positions the candidates behind a podium or a desk, the town hall format puts candidates in the occasionally awkward position of having to assume a casual pose during a serious event.

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On Sunday night, as many on the Internet pointed out, this resulted in Trump assuming a somewhat menacing and threatening pose.

Trump standing behind Mrs. Clintons in her space creeps me out. #debate — Maria Shriver (@mariashriver) October 10, 2016





Trump standing behind Hillary is the creepiest moment of the debate so far #Debate pic.twitter.com/eNIQqdJnmC — [J]ayJChillin (@JayJazzi) October 10, 2016





Trump was on his feet from the beginning, frequently pacing the stage behind his opponent as she spoke. Clinton, on the other hand, usually took a seat after she had finished speaking.

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When asked about Trump’s onstage pacing by a reporter while boarding her plane after the debate, Clinton commented that “he was very present.”

Some found (dark) humor in Trump’s body language, quickly launching widely shared Internet memes.









Scary Halloween costume idea: Dress up like Trump, go to a party, and stand 3-5 feet behind successful women. pic.twitter.com/tz6STpkccQ — erin chack (@ErinChack) October 10, 2016





Many others pointed out that Trump’s stance was a classic way to convey intimidation.

Trump standing this close to Clinton while she talks is a man’s FAVORITE intimidation tactic and my god I am uncomfortable #debate — Zach Stafford (@ZachStafford) October 10, 2016





#TRUMP, we saw you try to physically intimidate #Hillary…by standing/looming over her! You are a sexist ????????@realDonaldTrump #debate — CoffieHouse Graphics (@chgraphics) October 10, 2016





Trump trying to intimidate Hillary by standing behind her while she’s answering a citizen is disgusting. Truly a bully. #debates — michael brown (@boyinquestion) October 10, 2016





This is surreal. HRC breaking down health care issues in detail & Trump wandering around and menacing her by standing behind her — Steve Phillips (@StevePtweets) October 10, 2016





And experts agreed.

“His body language spoke so clearly,” Susan Krauss Whitbourne, PhD, a professor of psychology at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst who has written on the psychology of body language, tells Yahoo Beauty. “This bullying stance and sniffling — that’s his telltale sign, definitely, the sniffles. It’s all bullying. The hulking, the glaring — he’s expressing the bullying overtly. It’s not even hidden.”

Krauss Whitbourne muses that such unbridled physical aggression might also reflect Trump’s now notorious inability to regulate what he says and does.

“One wonder how much of this is staged and how much of this is his ability to filter,” she says. “He’s leaking this communication all over the place. Is it intentional? Is it unintentional? Either way, the effect on viewers and the audience and Hillary — I assume — is: ‘I’m going to rough you up unless you’re careful.‘”

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