Monday 29 May 2017

Shake on it

All this fuss about a handshake. President Macron is making far too much of it, turning a handshake into a power struggle, telling the world that no fellow leader is going to get to grips with him and win. It's all rather pathetic. First it was the Trump handshake, the bone-crushing one which Macron revealed was the American president's attempt to emasculate him and show him who is boss. Then it was the handshake with Putin. Tough but businesslike. Get a life, Monsieur Le President. A handshake's a handshake. Don't go overboard about it. The really cool leaders deal with it without telling the world what it means and how it should be interpreted. To be frank, the whole handshake thing is really rather petty. A president, even one elected only recently, should ignore such stuff. Far more important are the eyes. Did you, Monsieur Le President, look into Trump's and Putin's eyes without wavering? That says more about a leader's personality and strength than a handshake, however eyes-watering it might be.

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