Handshaking Donald Trump
By topffer
@topffer (42156)
France
May 26, 2017 9:01am CST
Giving a handshake to Donald Trump is something fearsome. For those who do not know, Trump thrusts his hand with his palm facing down forcing people to adopt an uncomfortable position for their hand, and then pulls them towards him. Few have been able to resist to the pull until now, here a short note detailing the successful methods.
Trudeau, or the dojo technique
The father of Justin Trudeau had a black belt second dan of judo, and it is quite a judoka technique that he used himself : he moved quickly near Trump and put his left hand on Trump shoulder to do the handshake. The hand was helping to keep his balance and he was too close to permit to Trump to pull him towards to make him fall on the tatami. Success !
Macron, or the fierce hidalgo technique
It is a common method for shaking hands in Spain that used Emmanuel Macron : you look right in the eyes, and you squeeze very firmly until you see a sign of pain in the other eyes. The strongest macho wins. If the squeeze is strong enough, Trump will not be able to pull you towards. There is a drawback : you cannot release the squeeze until he really seems to give up, it would offer to Trump an opportunity to come back to the front.
Like you see, the dojo technique is defensive, the fierce hidalgo technique is offensive. None of these strategies is completely satisfying, and they cannot be used by a woman, so I guess that many head of states are working on new techniques to face the «grab and pull» technique of Trump.
Have you a specific technique to shake hands ? In France a handshake is usually something soft and we look in the eyes of the other person. Giving a very firm handshake like Macron did with Trump, or not looking in the eyes is considered rude.
I give a link to an interesting interview of an Australian specialist who taught to Putin how to shake hands, and analyzes Trump’s handshake.
Donald Trump needs to be taught how to shake hands, says the Australian body language expert who has advised Vladimir Putin.
14 people like this
13 responses
@LadyDuck (457918)
• Switzerland
26 May 17
Have you seen the video where he pushed to be in front line for the photo? Look at this funny video with the Pope, I do not know what to think, but I laughed. I believe it's a prank.
Su santidad el Papa Francisco and Melania refused to hold Donald Trump hands Un inusual y feo gesto de rechazo contra el presidente #donaldtrump hecho por el...
5 people like this
@topffer (42156)
• France
26 May 17
It cannot be nothing else than a prank, but it is very funny
.
I have seen it, and also a video where Macron ostentatiously shakes hand and gives a kiss to Merkel while Trump is waiting to shake Macron's hand. Trump seems to not have been taught basic rules of politeness/civility : ladies first.
.
I have seen it, and also a video where Macron ostentatiously shakes hand and gives a kiss to Merkel while Trump is waiting to shake Macron's hand. Trump seems to not have been taught basic rules of politeness/civility : ladies first.4 people like this
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@arthurchappell (45002)
• Preston, England
26 May 17
I hate anyone who uses a handshake to better or humiliate another person - it breaks the whole bond of trust and equality to hand shaking represents
4 people like this
@arthurchappell (45002)
• Preston, England
26 May 17
@topffer not something I ever had lessons in either but i'd never do that
2 people like this
@blitzfrick (2890)
• United States
26 May 17
Being a woman, I suppose a soft handshake is expected from me, but I make a point to give a firm handshake, looking square into the eyes of the other person. I detest giving or getting soft handshakes.
I saw a news segment about the Trumpshake on tv, but no word of how to deal with it was discussed. There's no way I'd let Trump touch any part of my body, so there's that.
3 people like this
@topffer (42156)
• France
26 May 17
It is a matter of culture I guess. It is rude in France to give a firm handshake, and even more when it is to a woman.
I read this morning an article about the Trump-Macron handshake yesterday, and I got the idea for this post when I discovered the Australian article that I link
. I am not very satisfied by "dojo technique", but I do not know martial arts enough to find better.
. I am not very satisfied by "dojo technique", but I do not know martial arts enough to find better.3 people like this
@topffer (42156)
• France
26 May 17
@blitzfrick We shake hands a lot more often than the English world. We would have badly with our hands after having firmly handshaken all our male (women are receiving a "bise", a kiss) coworkers every morning.
.1 person likes this
@blitzfrick (2890)
• United States
26 May 17
@topffer Aw, that's too bad about France. Maybe in my next life I'll be a man. Hey maybe in my past lives I was a man, LOL! 
2 people like this
@JESSY3236 (18895)
• United States
26 May 17
I don't have a special way to do a handshake. My mother took a class when she was going to college about customs of other cultures. It was really interesting. I didn't know that Trump has an unusual handshake.
3 people like this
@topffer (42156)
• France
26 May 17
He has an embarrassing and not very polite handshake, and the media are having fun to see how people are managing it.
My mother spent 1 year in an expensive school for girls that was teaching things like handling servants, etiquette, manners... At her time a girl from a good family was not supposed to work. She managed to convince her parents that she was wanting to do other kind of studies
. Learning other cultures at college was certainly more interesting and it incites to have a very open mind
.
My mother spent 1 year in an expensive school for girls that was teaching things like handling servants, etiquette, manners... At her time a girl from a good family was not supposed to work. She managed to convince her parents that she was wanting to do other kind of studies. Learning other cultures at college was certainly more interesting and it incites to have a very open mind4 people like this
@lovinangelsinstead21 (36850)
• Pamplona, Spain
26 May 17
Until you said I had not noticed what he was really doing.
I shall sit on my hands then if its rude.
Never thought about that either.
More than shake hands here we tend to give each other a hug not a wrestling hug either and a kiss on both sides of the face.
I have shaken hands before but not forcefully either.
But I also reckon that a lot of people will not do it on purpose their way of greeting other people its just that they would not know like me when I first came over here and I had no idea they hugged each other and kissed each other like that.
Totally bewildering for me at the start I can tell you and I had never done that in my life with others (strangers) or family.
1 person likes this
@topffer (42156)
• France
27 May 17
I have spoken to another responder of the "bise", the kiss on the cheek we are giving in France. Here the number of the kisses depends of the area, and varies between 1 and 4. It exists in all Latin countries. Men usually rarely kiss other men though, except if they are from their families, but it may happen. I do not feel comfortable when a stranger kisses me instead of handshaking.
.1 person likes this
@lovinangelsinstead21 (36850)
• Pamplona, Spain
27 May 17
@topffer
So they don´t hug each other then?
They hug each other when they have not seen each other in a while.
Hugs and kisses is what they do here at least in this part of the World like I said somewhere else I was bewildered by that kind of thing as well at first now I don´t even think about it.
Even others in England caught on to it as well and others did not like it.
Say no more.
They give you an enormous hug and two big kisses and with an "ala pues, que vide o que?"
I love his family being like that.
Sending you "virtual hugs" and "ala pues que sigas bien".
Sending you "virtual hugs" and "ala pues que sigas bien".1 person likes this
@topffer (42156)
• France
27 May 17
@lovinangelsinstead21 I do not discuss about the tradition of others, and I follow them if I visit a foreign country.
Thank you, I send you two hugs and I wish you a good weekend.
.1 person likes this
@much2say (53959)
• Los Angeles, California
11 Jun 17
I do not understand that hand shake at all - who in the world taught him that?! It's as if he's playing on a pinball machine, pulling the lever 
- or even tug o war. I don't really have a "technique" - I guess I just go with the flow and go with however the other person does it. But I don't know how I would deal with a weird one like Trump's 
.1 person likes this
@much2say (53959)
• Los Angeles, California
11 Jun 17
@topffer Macron will have to share his technique with the world . I had a second thought . . . if I had the guts . . . if Trump held out his hand to me for a shake, I would grab and pull his hand real hard FIRST and I hope all the cameras would be around 
!
. I had a second thought . . . if I had the guts . . . if Trump held out his hand to me for a shake, I would grab and pull his hand real hard FIRST and I hope all the cameras would be around !1 person likes this
@topffer (42156)
• France
11 Jun 17
Since I wrote this, I read that Macron worked his handshake technique especially for Trump. The Great of this world are really childish sometimes
. Trump does not care to look like a bully, and I am even asking myself if he does not like that. I would not spend time on studying the best way to handshake him and I would be pulled, never mind the cameras around.
. The Great of this world are really childish sometimes. Trump does not care to look like a bully, and I am even asking myself if he does not like that. I would not spend time on studying the best way to handshake him and I would be pulled, never mind the cameras around.1 person likes this
@JudyEv (325594)
• Rockingham, Australia
27 May 17
@topffer I remember one of the things he said was that when someone turns their head slightly and scratches the back of their neck it means they were wishing they were somewhere else. I did a music exam on euphonium once and had to have an accompanist. She was a friend. Without anything to give me a starting note I found it hard to start at the right pitch (it doesn't matter if you don't understand about brass instruments ). Anyway my first few notes were pretty off-key and suddenly my friend is scratching the back of her neck. It was pretty funny afterwards.
). Anyway my first few notes were pretty off-key and suddenly my friend is scratching the back of her neck. It was pretty funny afterwards.1 person likes this
@Daljinder (23231)
• Bangalore, India
27 May 17
How about avoiding it altogether? Keep your hand busy 
I have read about his handshake technique and seen Trudeau counter it which was well done and that Angela (?) from Germany simply refused a handshake.
I have read about his handshake technique and seen Trudeau counter it which was well done and that Angela (?) from Germany simply refused a handshake.1 person likes this
@topffer (42156)
• France
27 May 17
No, Angela waited for a handshake for the journalists, and Trump did not gave it. It is what the newspapers wrote, but Trump said that it was a "fake news".
There is a video of the handshake with Macron which is really funny : "Each president gripped the other’s hand with considerable intensity, their knuckles turning white and their jaws clenching and faces tightening". I give you a link, and there is also a video about the Trump/Merkel incident on it.
.
There is a video of the handshake with Macron which is really funny : "Each president gripped the other’s hand with considerable intensity, their knuckles turning white and their jaws clenching and faces tightening". I give you a link, and there is also a video about the Trump/Merkel incident on it.
Donald Trump and France’s newly elected young President Emmanuel Macron, exchanged an awkward power handshake at their first face-to-face meeting in Brussels on Thursday.
@topffer (42156)
• France
28 May 17
@YrNemo Politics is a kind of reality show played by professional artists. The first ones have been surprised by the handshakes of Trump, but the following are now studying new strategies for their public. Trump does not seem to have around him like other politicians people to learn to him how to speak, do hairstyle or shake hands. Or maybe he gives voluntarily another kind of show to the media.
.1 person likes this
@YrNemo (20261)
•
28 May 17
@topffer but Trump was/is not new in the business world. He was famous for his ruthlessness in making money, why was he nervous in the first place in the presence of other world leaders I wonder? (Unless in his mind, the business world is inferior (namely Trump) with respect to real politicians (= not Trump)?
Other leaders felt his nervousness and played on that during the handshakes perhaps (real power struggle!) .
.1 person likes this
