I want to hold your hand

The First Lady of Poland Smoothly Avoided Shaking Donald Trump’s Hand [Updated]

With his awkward handshake history, can you blame her?

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Donald Trump has only been in office for six months, but he already has a streak of awkward handshakes—or in this case, snubs—with world leaders. As the president and First Lady were greeting the Polish President Andrzej Duda and his wife, Agata Kornhauser-Duda, in Poland on Thursday, Kornhauser-Duda appeared to pass over the president and instead shook Melania Trump’s hand.

The video, which quickly went viral, shows the president turning toward Kornhauser-Duda for a handshake as she swiftly walks by him. Trump looks bewildered at this apparent rejection. (She did, later, shake the president’s hand after all.)

But this interaction is only the latest fumble in Trump’s social interactions. In February, Trump’s meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe resulted in what looked like an [uncomfortable power struggle] as Trump held on to the Abe’s hands for nearly 19 seconds. The president has a reputation for this kind of handshake, which CNN deemed the “grab and yank” in a compilation video featuring political leaders from Vice President Mike Pence to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.

There was also that time in January when Trump held on to British Prime Minister Theresa May’s hand as they walked the White House colonnade. It is hard to forget, too, the president’s refusing to shake German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s hand in March, despite her actually asking him to do so for a photo op. It looks like they finally got that handshake in at the G20 Summit on Thursday, though Merkel appears to be slightly startled.

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And do we even need to get into the Melania hand graze seen ‘round the world? O.K. fine, we have. .
This article has been updated to reflect that President Trump and Kornhauser-Duda did eventually shake hands.