Donald Trump's Awkward Handshake Goes Viral

  • last year
Donald Trump's signature aggressive handshake was short-circuited by France's newly-elected President Emmanuel Macron. Foreign leaders like the President of Tajikistan are now wise to the Trump handshake after witnessing Trump jerking around Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Transcript
00:00 President Donald Trump recently met with both Canadian and Japanese Prime
00:03 Ministers. And it's not just Trump's policies or hate speech that have caught
00:06 our attention this time, it's his jerky and unpredictable handshake. So Trump's
00:10 hands have always been kind of a meme. This handshake compilation from John
00:14 Oliver really brought this to light.
00:17 And then check out Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe after the fact. That
00:27 was a very sincere reaction. It gets long and awkward. Trudeau even uses his own
00:33 body to stabilize himself. But what does Trump's handshake actually say about him?
00:38 A handshake is used to assert dominance and remind others of their lower status.
00:42 When he pats people on the hand, back, or shoulder it looks friendly, but it's what
00:46 psychologists call a status reminder. Yep, not surprised about that either. Most
00:50 visibly he jerks people towards him to stand his ground and show them who is
00:54 boss. Beyond the handshake, Trump has always been very expressive with his
00:57 hands and people have called them out for being small. Editor of Vanity Fair
01:00 Graydon Carter once called him a short-fingered Bulgarian. And while on the
01:04 campaign trail, Marco Rubio actually mocked them as well.
01:07 "And you know what they say about men with small hands? You can't trust them."
01:12 There's even a site called shortfingers.com that posts memes of Trump with his
01:15 hands. So what do you think about Donald's viral handshake? Let us know in
01:19 the comments below. For more trends like these just go to whatstrending.com.

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