Whose mans is this? Trump’s best (or worst) handshakes
In just over five months as president of the United States, Donald Trump has eroded whatever honor and decency the office once held.
Between the degradation of civil rights for underprivileged communities, targeting some of the most vulnerable populations in the country, and actively encouraging police violence, it’s hard to even choose the worst affront to our democracy that’s come from Trump.
This has all naturally led to the United States’ reputation taking a major hit in the rest of the world, especially coupled with the contemptuous and petty way Trump treats other world leaders (besides Vladimir Putin).
Trumpito can’t even execute a damn handshake in a normal way.
Every single handshake with fellow politicians and world leaders is some sort of psychological tug of war for Trump to try and assert his dominance, or lack thereof.
Florin Dolcos, a psychology professor at the University of Illinois, told The Huffington Post that Trump’s handshakes are indeed calculated:
“It goes down to asserting dominance. Why he wants to do that? I don’t know. It looks, to me, like he is trying too hard… It looks ridiculous”
Ridiculous indeed.
French President Emmanuel Macron, an unlucky recipient of Trump’s weird handshakes, claimed that he had to communicate his own strength during the standoff:
“My handshake with him was not innocent. We need to show that we won’t make small concessions, even symbolic ones, while not over-hyping things either.”
As for Trump’s defenders, Sam Nunberg, an ex-Trump aide, said the president is trying to communicate his agenda through his handshakes,
“I just think the president is very cognizant of the optics of what it looks like at these multilateral meetings with world leaders and I even think [the handshake] is symbolic to the America First theme of his presidency and campaign.”
We live in the dumbest times.