Trump, Macron handshake turns into a showdown

BRUSSELS — President Donald Trump met his match in a handshake showdown with France’s new president, Emmanuel Macron.

At their first meeting, ahead of aNATOsummit in Brussels on Thursday, the two men locked hands for so long that knuckles started turning white.

Trump finally seemed ready to pull away — but Macron evidently wasn’t. The French leader held the shake for a few seconds more. Both men’s jaws seemed to clench.

Trump has described himself as “a germ freak” andcalledhandshakes “barbaric.” In his 1997 book “The Art of the Comeback,” Trump wrote he’d “often thought of taking out a series of newspaper ads encouraging the abolishment of the handshake.”

Trump’s aversion to hand-shaking seemed to lessen over the course of the U.S. presidential campaign. He’s now deep into an inaugural world tour that has forced him to exchange hand greetings with leaders fromIsrael to the Vatican.

As a 39-year-old who has never held elected office, Macron clearly was excited about the appearance with the U.S. president, which cemented his status as a newglobal player— and as a formidable hand-shaker.

Trump also drew notice when his push to get in front of the pack at the summit generated indignation in the Balkans and garnered attention on social media — but the man he shoved aside took it in stride.

During Thursday’s gathering, Trump put his right hand on the right arm of Montenegro Prime Minister Dusko Markovic and pushed himself ahead as NATO leaders walked inside the alliance’s new headquarters and prepared for a group photo.

Trump then stood near Markovicandspoke to Lithuanian PresidentDalia Grybauskaite.

Video of the incident spread on social networks in multiple languages.

“It seems Donald Trump did not want that anyone overshadows his presence at the summit,” said the Montenegro newspaper Vijesti.

Other Balkan websites ran headlines such as “America First” and “Where do you think you are going?”

Markovic himself, however, shrugged off the slight.

“It didn’t really register. I just saw reactions about it on social networks. It is simply a harmless situation,” Markovic said.

Instead of being insulted, he took the opportunity to thank Trump for supporting Montenegro’s membership in NATO. The small former Yugoslav republic is slated to become NATO’s 29th member next month.

And in any case, Markovic said, “it is natural that the president of the United States is in the front row.”