The Atlantic

The Trump-Macron Handshake: A Play in Four Acts

How two leaders ruined a perfectly good gesture
Source: Alain Jocard / Reuters

The president of the United States and the president of France have weaponized an ancient gesture invented to signal the absence of weapons. They have double-handedly ruined the handshake. On Friday, they made it official, in an excruciating conclusion to a long-running saga.

This story begins with what the French president, Emmanuel Macron, as a “moment of truth,” but which in truth was several his boss that Trump was a ; by this point, the American president’s fearsome Yank-Grip-and-Pump had already ensnared the likes of a and .

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