Watch Poland’s First Lady Snub Trump Handshake (Video)

It’s another international hand-cident for the President

In what is starting to look like a new American tradition, President Donald Trump is once again the subject of a viral handshake fail video, this time after being curved by Poland’s First lady.

Visiting Poland today ahead of his trip to Hamburg, Germany for a meeting of world leaders at the G-20 summit, Trump shook hands with President Andrzej Duda during a photo op.

First Lady Agata Kornhauser-Duda was standing behind her husband as he and POTUS glad-handed, but as soon as they finished, she moved forward. Trump then stuck out his hand and leaned in for what looked like another shake session… at which point Kornhauser-Duda walked right by him, shaking hands with a surprised-looking First Lady Melania instead.

It’s unclear what the reasons were for the apparent slight, but that didn’t stop Twitter and the rest of the internet from interpreting it how they wanted.

“Trump’s trip to Poland is going well,” tweeted social media editor Andy Ha.

https://twitter.com/_AndyHa/status/882982899913502720

 

The Polish First Lady has become quite the internet celebrity because of the clip. Some called her a hero. One user called her “smooth af.”

This isn’t the first time that Trump’s political handshakes haven’t gone over well  — or even the fifth. On Election day, he kicked-off his nascent presidency with an extremely awkward handshake-cum-power move against his own Vice President, Mike Pence, limply grasped Pence’s hand during a last-minute campaign stop, only to clamp down and yank it, and Pence, toward himself. On January 22, he did it again to his Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, and still again nine later with his Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch. And, yes, still again February 10 with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. (That time, Trump alternated between relaxing and aggressively yanking Abe’s hand toward himself for a cringe-inducing 19 seconds.)

By then people took notice. Just three days later, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made his first visit to the Trump White House, where during their first official handshake he glared directly into Trump’s eyes, gripped Trump’s hand with his right hand, and placed his left hand on Trump’s elbow to prevent the President’s signature move.

In March, Trump didn’t extend a hand to German Chancellor Angela Merkel for a customary shake during a photo op at the White House. He was also part of an uncomfortable handshake with French President Emmanuel Macron.

“They shook hands for an extended period of time. Each president gripped the other’s hand with considerable intensity, their knuckles turning white and their jaws clenching and faces tightening,” Washington Post reporter Phillip Rucker, who was in the room, wrote.

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