(Reuters) – U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron shared an intense series of handshakes on Saturday, reminiscent of the white-knuckled grip-off that marked a meeting between the two leaders more than seven years ago.
Visiting Paris to attend the reopening of the Notre-Dame cathedral, Trump was greeted by Macron at the steps of the Elysee Palace. It was Trump’s first foreign trip since winning the Nov. 5 U.S. election.
Exiting his vehicle, Trump pulled Macron’s right hand towards his body as the two hugged and gripped each other with clenched fists, shaking firmly back and forth. While friendly, it appeared both men were holding on tight.
As they ascended the steps of the palace and turned again towards the cameras, Trump positioned his hand above Macron’s and pushed down firmly as they locked hands for a second time.
The sequence triggered approval from some Trump supporters online, who saw in the president-elect’s actions a concerted attempt to intimidate Macron.
“President Trump is back to dominating world leaders with his handshake,” an account who goes by the username @BehizyTweets posted on the social media platform X. “Macron is going to need a hand massage after all that twisting and pulling Trump did to him.”
The two men have a history of intense handshakes.
When they met for the first time in May 2017 ahead of a NATO summit in Brussels, each man gripped each other’s right hand so firmly that their knuckles turned white and their jaws seemed to clench as they sat for a face-to-face meeting.
Macron told a newspaper in 2017 that the white-knuckle handshake was “not innocent” and “a moment of truth” aimed at showing his U.S. counterpart, whose first term ended in January 2021, that he would not be intimidated.
Trump and Macron were joined later on Saturday by Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. The meeting occurred with world leaders in Paris to celebrate Notre-Dame’s restoration five years after it was ravaged by fire.
Trump and Macron shared another firm and prolonged handshake outside the cathedral, though it fell short of the intensity of the 2017 grip-off, according to social media influencer Collin Rugg.
“The handshake battle between Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron continues,” Rugg posted on X. “Their handshake at the Notre Dame Cathedral lasted for 17 seconds, coming short of their previous record of 29 seconds.”
(Reporting by Nathan Layne in New York; Editing by Paul Simao)
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