President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron have once again grabbed hands in such a way that the meeting has become viral.
Macron visited Trump in the White House on Monday, Macron's first official visit back to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. during the president's second term.
Trump waited outside the west wing and greeted Macron with a handshake and then the two leaders entered a hug.
Then the handshake continued-a kind of tug of war and Macron by a reporter were asked to send the pope to the pope.
Body language expert Judi James called it a 'Death Clasp'.
“With the eyes and fate of the world currently resting on their shoulders,” James told Dailymail.com, “this latest handshake greeting would always be littered with signs of superior power and dominance.”
Monday's Grab-and-Grin is the last in a long row of elongated handshakes between the two leaders, who started eight years earlier.
During a meeting of May 2017 prior to NATO summit in Brussels, Trump and Macron grabbed hands so firmly that their knuckles turned white and clamped their jaws.
President Donald Trump (left) stood outside the west wing and greeted French President Emmanuel Macron (right) with an intense and an elongated handshake
President Donald Trump (left) continues to hold onto the French President Emmanuel Macron (right) while posing on Monday for photos outside the West Wing
At the time, Macron said that the clinch of a handshake was 'not innocent' and was intended as a 'moment of truth' that showed his American counterpart that the French leader would not have been intimidated.
They still shared a number of bizarre handshakes during Trump's first term, which ended in January 2021.
In December 2024, after Trump re -election won about Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, he and Macron were reunited in Paris for the reopening of Notre Dame, who was seriously damaged in a fire in April 2019.
Trump and Macron were again working on the intense handshakes during the trip.
James reminded Dailymail.com that it was Macron who initially won the Battle of the Power Shakes with Trump for the first time when they had one of their earliest meetings during Trump's first tenure. '
'Trump was a serial power-shaker who liked to register Alfa, physical dominance through his impressive back catalog of alarming bones and throbbing rituals. But Macron had clearly prepared with a small weight training because he grabbed Trump's hand so hard that you could see the sketch of his fingers in the flesh of Trump's hand a few moments afterwards, “James remembered.
Then she founded her attention to Monday's display and noted that the Rictus Grin's from the leaders that are performed should not deduce the real action at waist height, because both Trump and Macron wanted to register superiority here. ”
“Trump's power cap on Macron's shoulder is a control and fixing gesture that also refers to a parental style dominance,” said James. “Macron immediately responds with a hand clamp to Trump's biceps, suggesting that he is not intimidated by the president's alpha attitude.”
President Donald Trump (left) and French President Emmanuel Macron Clinch Handch when they met on the sidelines of the G7 in Quebec, Canada in June 2018
The duo resumed their long handshakes in December 2024, after President-Elect Donald Trump (right) won the 2024 elections. French President Emmanuel Macron (left) invited Trump to Paris for the reopening of Notre Dame
“The two men then lock hands in a 'Death Clasp' muscle clamp of the hands,” James noted.
'Macron hits his left hand over the closure to suggest control and then performs a Trump classic, the' Shake and Yank ', where the closure is suddenly and relatively violently pulled forward or backwards, so that your' opponent 'is damped by Taking them by taking them off-balance, “James noted.
In this case, Macron pulled back, while Trump leaned forward so that Macron can inposition his hand on top.
“While the two men turn around to face the cameras, Trump holds a grim grip on Macron's hand, forcing the shake to last a few seconds and several extra shakes longer,” James noted. “We can see how this sturdy buckle looks more like a struggle than on a gesture of mutual respect.”
James also noted that the next foreign leader who met Trump had to study the images in detail.
Trump will organize British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in the White House on Thursday.
“Trump seems to be back in the Power-Play body language mode and Starmer has so far shown nothing like the level of Macron's skills when it comes to dealing,” James warned.
