(Reuters) – U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron shared a collection of intense handshakes on Saturday, harking back to the white-knuckle confrontation that marked a gathering between the 2 leaders greater than seven years.
Visiting Paris to attend the reopening of Notre-Dame Cathedral, Trump was greeted by Macron on the steps of the Elysée. It was Trump's first journey overseas since his victory within the November 5 US election.
Exiting his car, Trump pulled Macron's proper hand in direction of his physique as the 2 males hugged and clutched one another with clenched fists, shaking tightly backwards and forwards. Though pleasant, it appeared that each males had been holding their very own.
As they walked up the palace steps and turned towards the cameras once more, Trump positioned his hand on high of Macron's and pressed it firmly as they shook arms for a second time.
The footage drew approval on-line from some Trump supporters, who noticed the president-elect's actions as a concerted try to intimidate Macron.
“President Trump is as soon as once more dominating world leaders together with his handshake,” posted an account underneath the username @BehizyTweets on the social media platform hand therapeutic massage in any case that twisting and pulling Trump did to him.”
The 2 males have a historical past of intense handshakes.
Once they first met in Could 2017 earlier than a NATO summit in Brussels, every of the boys shook their proper arms so tightly that their knuckles turned white and their jaws appeared to clench as 'they had been sitting down for a head to head assembly.
Macron informed a newspaper in 2017 that the brutal handshake was “not harmless” and “a second of reality” geared toward exhibiting his American counterpart, whose first time period led to January 2021, that he wouldn’t be intimidated.
Trump and Macron had been joined later Saturday by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. The assembly happened with world leaders in Paris to rejoice the restoration of Notre-Dame 5 years after it was ravaged by fireplace.
Trump and Macron shared one other agency, extended handshake exterior the cathedral, though it didn’t attain the depth of the 2017 handshake, in response to social media influencer Collin Rugg.
“The handshake battle between Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron continues,” Rugg posted on X. “Their handshake at Notre Dame Cathedral lasted 17 seconds, wanting their earlier document of 29 seconds.”
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