Dissecting the Trump handshake

How did the handshake become a major topic for discussion since Donald Trump became president?

The media’s recent fascination with handshakes has been one of the odder talking points connected with the Trump presidency. While there are still deviations across some cultures as to the social meaning of a handshake, in the western world it is an accepted and understood custom to confer agreement or to start an introduction. How, then, has the handshake become a major topic for discussion ever since Donald Trump became president?

The origins of the handshake in human history are murky, but one of the strongest explanations is that it was supposed to represent peace between two people as you showed each other you weren’t holding any weapons. President Trump has demonstrated that peace is not the message he is trying to convey. Putting aside the fact that the handshakes are entertaining viewing, they demonstrate the unorthodox relationship this President has with foreign leaders. If there had only been one or two awkward handshakes, then it would be fair to assume that they were unrelated. This just isn’t the case. President Trump has had handshake faux pas with leaders now including Japanese PM Shinzo Abe, Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, Canadian PM Justin Trudeau, and most recently French President Emmanuel Macron. In the cases of Abe and Gorsuch, the media furor towards Trump’s handshake was quieter, while both men had their hands mangled by the POTUS. Trudeau and Macron, however, were clearly prepared and matched President Trump’s intensity when shaking hands, leading to a number of humorous pictures.

While the President has not explained the reasoning behind his handshakes, the most obvious inference is that he sees the gesture as a chance to assert his dominance from the outset. He is signaling to his counterparts that he is not to be trifled with and that they should expect him to be the most important voice in whatever conversation they will have. Power plays like this are not new to politics or for American Presidents. The most infamous example may be Lyndon Baines Johnson, who was well known for establishing his supremacy when dealing with colleagues. One way he achieved this is when he occasionally stood very close to whomever he was speaking with, to the point where they were leaning backwards as he loomed over them. While this kind of behavior is not dissimilar from Trump’s handshake, there is a clear difference between the two. Trump is president in a time when his every move in public is caught on camera. LBJ, living in the time that he did, was able to do certain things without it leaking to the public. The repeated occurrence of Trump’s aggressive handshakes, combined with media scrutiny, have turned them to potential sources of embarrassment for the President, and great fodder for late night comedians.

One might assume that Trump picked up his handshake technique from his career in business. While it may have been effective in that realm, in the modern world of diplomacy it is proving a stumbling block. What should be a simple gesture of peace and accord has turned into a sideshow. We can only hope that instead of creating a strange confrontation with many of the leaders he will meet, President Trump will abandon his vice-grip handshake in favor of a more tactful approach. This would take at least some of the media controversy off his back and allow him to focus on the job at hand (pun definitely intended).