Donald Trump and handshakes

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Donald Trump shaking hands with Emmanuel Macron on Bastille Day, July 14, 2017

Donald Trump, 45th and 47th U.S president and businessman, has unusual approaches to the practice of handshaking; his handshakes with world leaders since his inauguration as U.S. president have been the subject of extensive commentary.[1] Scholars have noted that politicians' handshakes are usually unnoticed or restricted to silent interpretation by the participants, and only in the case of Trump do they appear to have garnered wide media attention.[2]

Notable incidents of handshakes (and avoidance of handshakes) involving Trump have included interactions with French president Emmanuel Macron, Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, German chancellor Angela Merkel, and U.S. leaders including then Director of the FBI James Comey, and Supreme Court Justice nominee Neil Gorsuch. The same characteristic has been identified during his 2016 presidential campaign, although it was not widely reported at the time.[2] The Washington Post reported that "Trump has a habit of sharing awkward, intense and sometimes downright strange handshakes with world leaders and U.S. officials",[3] and world leaders prepare themselves to counteract the handshake from Trump.[4][5][6] The Guardian said that Trump's handshake style is a way to assert his superiority,[7] and New Statesman called it a show of masculinity.[8] Psychology professor Florin Dolcos found it to be part of Trump's strategic way of interacting with world leaders.[5]

Commentators have claimed that Trump has germophobic views relating to handshaking;[9] Trump has at times deemed handshaking to be "barbaric, disgusting and 'very, very terrible'".[10] Trump's approach to handshaking became a further subject of public debate during the COVID-19 pandemic, after he predicted that the social convention may come to an end, but that as a politician he would continue shaking hands due to its "deep-seated symbolic meaning".[10]

  1. ^ Freedland, Jonathan (May 28, 2017). "The Trump handshake: how world leaders are fighting back". The Guardian. Archived from the original on July 22, 2017. Retrieved July 22, 2017.
  2. ^ a b Wignell, O'Halloran & Tan 2018, pp. 197–198.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference awkward was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Wignell, O'Halloran & Tan 2018, p. 197: "Trump's handshake has received so much attention and has now become so notorious that other world leaders such as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and French President Emmanuel Macron have taken measures to counteract it."
  5. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Ind was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference voa was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference whatdoes was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference newstatesman was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference FT was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ a b Oxlund 2020, p. 39.