... but Trump’s clasp was because of bathmophobia (which is his fear of slopes)
Image that symbolised new special relationship may be due to the president’s nervousness
SO IT wasn’t necessarily an affectionate holding of hands after all.
It emerged last night that Theresa May was only photographed hand in hand with Donald Trump because, bizarre as it sounds, the president may have a fear of slopes and needed a soothing arm to negotiate a downhill stretch of path.
The image of the pair holding hands was beamed around the world, to the delight of supporters of the new US president but to the consternation of those – many of them in the UK – far less keen on Mr Trump.
But government sources in Washington DC were suggesting that the hand-holding was not as a result of friendship after all. The insider said Mr Trump was known to have an aversion to slopes, and said it could have been the reason for his decision to grasp the Prime Minister’s hand. Such a fear is a known condition called bathmophobia.
As the pair walked along the White House colonnade on Friday, they encountered the top of a gentle slope. Mr Trump then offered his hand to Mrs May, apparently anxious she should steady the nerves of the world’s most powerful man.
The footage of Mr Trump and Mrs May walking along the colonnade backs up the claim that the president made the first move. As the pair reach the top of the slope, the president stretches out his left arm and grasps Mrs May’s right hand. They then walk for about five steps before Mr Trump slides his left arm across and pats the underside of Mrs May’s hand, possibly grateful for her steadying presence.
The row threatened to become a distraction to an event that had gone better than some might have hoped.
Lunch had been a cordial affair. After their press conference, the two leaders and their teams of delegates withdrew to the White House’s state dining room for a “working lunch”. Over “baby iceberg wedge” salad with blue cheese, followed by braised beef short ribs with potato puree and glazed winter vegetables and a dessert of salted caramel creme brulee, talk turned to Brexit before touching on the special relationship enjoyed by Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher.
Present at the lunch were Mr Trump’s and Mrs May’s close advisers. Mr Trump’s camp included his son-inlaw Jared Kushner and chief strategist Stephen Bannon, executive chairman of far-Right website Breitbart News who has been accused of “fanning the flames of white supremacism”.
The vice-president Mike Pence and Trump’s chief of staff Reince Priebus were also in attendance as well as Gary Cohn and Lt Gen Michael Flynn, the president’s chief economic and national security advisers. Hope Hicks, the glamorous director of strategic communications, was also present.
On Mrs May’s side, she brought her joint chiefs of staff Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill; Sir Kim Darroch, the UK ambassador, and Sir Mark Lyall Grant, national security adviser. If Brexit dominated much of the conversation, Nigel Farage’s name only cropped up once. A source said: “Trump was keen to hear the Prime Minister’s opinion about what had happened. He said he had already heard Nigel Farage’s position on Brexit.”
They then spoke about their “shared admiration” for Mrs Thatcher.
“Trump said he had always looked up to Reagan and that he wants the relationship between him and Mrs May to be even better,” said the source.
After lunch, Trump took the menu card and gave it to an aide. Apparently, he likes to retain such mementos.
“Keep that safe,” he said. “I just had lunch with the British Prime Minister.”
Mr Trump’s aides have raised concerns that a likely meeting with the Prince of Wales during his state visit could backfire because of the pair’s differences on climate change. The president’s team is understood to have worries that the American press could jump on any difference in comments on the environment. There are also concerns that copycat protests based on those in Washington DC on the day of his inauguration could be seen when he comes to Britain later this year.
When Donald Trump took Theresa May’s hand at the White House, a lot of people thought he was helping her. Another theory is that the President may suffer from bathmophobia, a fear of stairs or slopes, and that it was in fact Mrs May who was helping him. Isn’t it rather sexist always to assume that it’s the man who is being chivalrous?
Real men aren’t afraid to hold hands. François Mitterrand gripped Helmut Kohl’s paw when they met at Verdun in 1984. Leonid Brezhnev was a fan of the fraternal “triple kiss”. And American politicians are famous for hugging each other in a desperate contest to appear the most friendly and in charge. By contrast, a hand lightly touched out of care or caution is hardly demonstrative or a matter for political debate. It’s just good manners.