Did French President Emmanuel Macron just beat Donald Trump at handshakes?
French President Emmanuel Macron appears to be the latest winner in US President Trump’s battle with various world leaders at handshakes.
The world was obsessed as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took to the White House for his first meeting with President Trump earlier this year.
In one official photo, Trudeau was seen looking awkwardly at Trump’s outstretched, fully-formed palm, appearing bemused at the idea of shaking the President’s hand.
It is hard not to be fixated with Trump’s hands, after he weirdly held hands with UK Prime Minister Theresa May during a trip to London and because he made such a huge deal about how his appendages are normal sized during his presidential campaign.
But Macron is the latest to take on the US President – and in this bout a much more intense handshake took place.
Philip Rucker, from the White House Press Pool, said the hands shook “with considerable intensity, their knuckles turning white and their jaws clenching and faces tightening”.
Form your own opinion about the fraught handshake from the video below:
.@POTUS meets with #France‘s President @EmmanuelMacron at the U.S. Ambassador’s residence in Brussels.#POTUSAbroad pic.twitter.com/moxBCcUd0A
— Department of State (@StateDept) May 25, 2017
Trump had met with Macron at the US Ambassador’s residence in Brussels.
Let’s just say Macron looked suitably pleased with how the handshake went – even though it was weird and went on for way longer than it probably should have.
Trump was also seen in a video pushing fellow NATO leader, Montenegrin Prime MInister Milo Đukanović out of the way to get to the front for a photo op.
Check that special moment out below:
Donald Trump, in that grotesque alpha manner of his, shoves his way to the front of the NATO group.pic.twitter.com/k6w1f78MXX
— James Melville (@JamesMelville) May 25, 2017
In other world leader news, the internet was also obsessed with Justin Trudeau’s ‘date night’ with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
It looked suitably romantic.
Then shortly after, Trudeau broke the internet again when a picture of his butt went viral.