Armed and dangerous! Did Donald Trump's bodyguard wear FAKE hands during inauguration so he could hold a gun under his coat?

  •  Trump and Melania were surrounded by Secret Service agents in DC on Friday
  •  One of them, a bald man, seemed to have his hands in same position whole time
  •  This led to speculation they were prosthetic hands, his real hand on gun trigger 
  •  But images have now emerged showing the agent's hands in other positions 
  •  Ex-military man Adam Linehan said he was 'a human man with functional arms'

By Chris Summers For Mailonline

Published: 06:22 EST, 25 January 2017 | Updated: 09:28 EST, 25 January 2017

Social media is awash with claims one of the Secret Service agents protecting President Donald Trump had prosthetic arms, with his real hands on the trigger of a gun under his coat.

The theory stems from analysis of video footage as President Trump, his wife Melania and son Barron went on an informal walkabout down Pennsylvania Avenue after Friday's inauguration.

The Trumps were surrounded by a phalanx of bodyguards in the standard-issue trenchcoats. 

But one of the agents came in for particular scrutiny because his arms did not appear to move and his hands remained in the same position for several long minutes. 

The Secret Service agent's appears to be holding his hands in a distinctive pose as he escorts President Trump and the First Lady down Pennsylvania Avenue

There they are again. The agent's hands appear to be in the same position. So are they actually prosthetic arms? Is his real hand on the trigger of a gun under his coat?

The theory that he was holding a gun under his coat was only dispelled when video emerged of him apparently moving his arms and using his hands.

On Friday there was high security as the presidential entourage of limousines traveled for more than two miles down towards the White House, occasionally getting out to greet the crowd.

The last President to be assassinated was John F Kennedy, in Dallas, in 1963 but Trump has polarized opinion in America on a scale never seen before and the Secret Service is clearly jittery about his security. 

In March 1981, only two months after his inauguration, President Ronald Reagan escaped an assassination attempt in Washington. 

White House Press Secretary James Brady was left paralyzed by a bullet from would-be assassin John Hinckley, who was released from a psychiatric hospital last year. 

As the presidential entourage walked on and waved at supporters the agent (right) kept his hands in the same odd position. His eyes continually surveyed the crowd

Another still from the video footage shows the agent with his hands in the same position as Barron Trump (left) waves to the crowd

BUT maybe they're not fake hands - this image, taken by an AFP photographer on Friday, shows the agent's hands in a different position, suggesting they were real after all

The agent appeared to do up the buttons on his coat with both hands

In the footage from Friday the bald agent's eyes move constantly, scanning the crowds for signs of a potential assassin, but his arms do not move.

His right hand is splayed out and his left hand is bunched into a fist with one finger touching the other hand's pinky.

This led to Internet speculation he was concealing a weapon under his jacket and had his real hand on the trigger.

There was more specific speculation that he had a Belgian-made FN-P90 sub-machine gun under his coat.

The FN-P90, which holds 50 rounds, is used by the Secret Service's Emergency Response Teams and is small enough to tuck underneath a winter coat.

The first to discuss the agent was an anonymous writer on the gaming blog Frag Hero who wrote on Saturday: 'After yesterday's presidential inauguration, many members of the military and law enforcement community noticed something very unusual about one of Trump's bodyguards.

'The conclusion they reached was that he did indeed have tactical fake arms.'

The agent's arms (right) seem to stay permanently fixed in the same awkward position for the entire procession, a long time for a person to hold their arms in such a way

One blogger suggested the agent probably had his hand on the trigger of his Belgian-made FN-P90 sub-machine gun (pictured)

The blogger says the agent bears 'an uncanny resemblance to Hitman Agent 47', a character played by Rupert Friend in a 2015 action movie based on a video game series.

But the Task and Purpose website said the theory was untrue and pointed to several images taken on Friday of the same agent with his hands in different positions. 

Task and Purpose writer Adam Linehan, a former military man, points to one image of the agent getting out of a car: 'The bodyguard, in the background of the image, exits one of the vehicles in the motorcade, and adjusts his tie and coat the way a man - a human man with functional arms - does whenever he's about to appear in public.' 

There were dozens of Secret Service agents guarding Trump and his family on Friday but it was the bald man on the right who was the focus of attention

Several bloggers said the Secret Service agent bore a resemblance to Hitman Agent 47 (played by Rupert Friend, pictured) in the 2015 film

Secret Service agents have all been trained to learn the lessons of the 1981 assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan (pictured), which took place outside a Washington hotel

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