Media analysis ,
Haider al-Abadi on March 20, 2017
CNN performed a second-by-second analysis of Trump's handshake with Macron. CNN editor-at-large
Chris Cillizza wrote, "President Donald Trump added to the growing lore of his handshakes with world leaders on Friday in France when he and French president Emmanuel Macron spent 29 seconds in a shake that turned into something much, much more." Another reporter at
The Guardian, Moustafa Bayoumi wrote, "it really is beginning to look like you can read Donald Trump's foreign policy by the bizarre ways that he shakes the hands of foreign leaders."
National Review journalist Noah Daponte-Smith commented, "the handshake between President Trump, visiting Paris for the occasion, and Emmanuel Macron, the recently elected French president. Trump has already achieved notoriety for his awkward handshakes, but this one is truly something to behold." ,
Lars Løkke Rasmussen in the Oval Office, March 30, 2017|left Daponte-Smith observed the attention placed on Trump's handshakes with other world leaders, "Trump's conduct toward his fellow heads of state, both in one-on-one meetings and in larger groups, has become a topic of great interest over the last few months: his handshakes with Justin Trudeau, Angela Merkel, and Shinzo Abe have also attracted great attention." The
Financial Times noted that Trump is a self-confessed "
germaphobe" who once said handshakes were "barbaric".
New Statesman analyzed different tactics used by Trump for different world leaders.
The New York Times also consulted a
body language expert who said this prolonged interaction was an attempt by each to show dominance.
The Washington Post reporter Peter W. Stevenson commented, "Trump has a habit of sharing awkward, intense and sometimes downright strange handshakes with world leaders and U.S. officials." Stevenson contacted William Chaplin, a profesor and the psychology department chair at
St. John's University in
Queens, New York, for behavioral analysis of Trump's handshakes. Chaplin noted, "People with good handshakes tended to be more outgoing, more socially at ease, less socially anxious."
VOA News interviewed
Success Signals author Patti Wood and Asheville, North Carolina mayor Esther Manheimer about the phenomenon. Wood observed Trudeau attempting to turn his experience with Trump into a "power handshake" by placing his hand on Trump's arm.
Academic analysis Trump's handshakes have been studied as a form of social ritual and
semiotics. From an
international relations perspective,
Ben O'Loughlin, professor of international relations at
Royal Holloway, University of London, conceptualizes Trump's handshakes with world leaders as being
standoffs with a signalling effect: "moments of uncertainty when nobody knows what will happen, including the people shaking hands... [which] signal, together, Trump's standoff with international relations per se." ==References==