President Trump‘s alpha-male handshakes seem to have become an unspoken challenge for world leaders. According to the press, France’s newly elected president Emmanuel Macron is the latest to step up the plate, and most agree that he came out the victor.
According to the Washington Post‘s Phillip Rucker, the two leaders exchanged a handshake with their “knuckles turning white and their jaws clenching and faces tightening.”
Press photos clearly showed who came out on top:
just a completely normal handshake between two men pic.twitter.com/H8ziROSPLv
— David Mack (@davidmackau) May 25, 2017
https://twitter.com/RupertMyers/status/867730330198921217
https://twitter.com/RupertMyers/status/867731159643566081
From The A.V. Club:
Not only does Macron grasp high on the wrist, smooshing the president’s contentiously sized hands until they are flattened in pain, he dominates the shaking motion, maintaining the grip even as Trump attempts to pull his hand away.
Here’s video of the struggle:
.@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
Macron wasn’t going to be the first to let go, so Trump was the first to relent. Sad!
Later that day, the two had a rematch and Macron handled it well:
https://twitter.com/calvinstowell/status/867758381884485633
Best comment so far:
https://twitter.com/intelwire/status/867712302048567297
Macron isn’t the only one who was ready for Trump’s Greco-Roman style of hand wrestling. Tajikistan’s president Emomali Rahmon shut him down on Tuesday:
Найден человек, который переиграл Трампа в рукопожатии pic.twitter.com/snhfDgJr2r
— Azamat Imanaliev (@a_imanaliev) May 23, 2017
Featured image via Rupert Myers. To follow Sky Palma on Facebook, click here.