"My handshake with him, it's not innocent", Macron told the Journal du Dimanche in an interview published Sunday.
"One must show that you won't make small concessions, even symbolic ones, but also not over-publicize things, either", he added.
In his three-day visit in Brussels, Macron and Trump met for the first time for lunch before a gathering of European and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation leaders last Thursday. So he'd like the French to be really impressed by his ability to shake President Trump's hand at length. Each man gripped each other's right hand so firmly that their knuckles turned white and their jaws seemed to clench.
French President Emmanuel Macron appeared to go out of his way to avoid shaking hands with Donald Trump during a very public meeting in Brussels.
"I do not let anything pass", he told JDD.
"It's not the be-all-and-end-all... but a moment of truth", Macron said.
Saudi Arabia Calls on Qatar to Stop Supporting Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood
Trump had previously appeared to side with the Saudis and other nations against Qatar in a series of tweets on Tuesday. Qatar complained two weeks ago about a hack to its state news agency, which published the story on May 23 .
Steve Holland, who covers the White House for Reuters, tweeted this: "The photogs noticed that Trump and Macron were gripping their hands hard..." Mr. Trump finally seemed ready to pull away - but Macron evidently wasn't.
Former reality TV star Trump is known to make visitors flinch with a strong handshake that he often combines with a wrench of the arm to leave his victim off balance.
Cameras also caught Macron swerving to avoid greeting Trump (favoring German Chancellor Angela Merkel instead) after walking up toward North Atlantic Treaty Organisation leaders Thursday at the start of the summit in Brussels.
"'Did you warn him about Trump's handshakes?' my philanthropist friend asked", Capehart wrote Friday, recalling a party on Monday night. Trump's done this because of what Macron's just done. There was the freakish 19-second handshake with a visibly bewildered Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, and the time the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, seemed to beat his unusual handshake style.
The two men met for the first time shortly after Macron won a tightly-contested French election against conservative candidate Marine Le Pen.
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