Macron: Why I got to grips with Trump

FRENCH President Emmanuel Macron yesterday revealed his white-knuckle handshake with Donald Trump was ‘a moment of truth’ and was designed to show he is not a pushover.

The two leaders (above) awkwardly locked hands for several seconds at their first meeting on Thursday. Mr Macron appeared to refuse to let go and others said they saw ‘jaws clenching and faces tightening’.

Mr Macron told French newspaper Le Journal Du Dimanche it ‘wasn’t innocent’. He said: ‘One must show that you won’t make small concessions, even symbolic ones... Donald Trump, the Turkish president or the Russian president see things in terms of power relationships, which doesn’t bother me. In my bilateral dialogues I don’t let anything pass. That is how you get respect.’

Mr Macron is understood to have asked Mr Trump not to back out of the Paris climate agreement. The pair also discussed the Syrian crisis, counter-terrorism and defence spending over lunch at the US ambassador’s residence in Brussels, ahead of a Nato summit.