Donald Trump seemed “disrespectful” to him French President Emmanuel Macron as they shook hands in front of flashing cameras.
World leaders know that every word they say and every move they make in public is being recorded for a worldwide audience. So everything they do is a calculated move.
Body language experts decipher what is strange and unusual about the person US president’s handshake with his French Fellow this week.
Donald Trump was apparently “rude” towards Emmanuel Macron when they shook hands this week
Image credit: Getty/Anna Moneymaker
Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron have much talked about interaction at the G7 Summit on Monday, June 15.
Experts noticed something odd about Trump’s handshake ahead of their discussion in Evian-les-Bains in France.
The two leaders, aged 80 and 48, typically have a striking energy when they greet each other. But Trump appears to be shaking hands with a “de*d fish” this time, one expert said.
Image generated by Bored Panda using Gemini
“Trump is completely helpless,” said Denise Dudley, a clinical psychologist and behavioral expert Huffington Post.
Experts say this is a classic case of a “d*d fish” handshake, where the other person has no choice but to “do all the work.”
Although his handshake with Macron did not seem to convey enough energy, experts took special note of how he spent 13 seconds shaking hands with Macron. First Lady of France Brigitte Macron.
Handshakes like these can be an indicator of power dynamics, experts say
Image credit: Getty/Anadolu
In a “de*d fish” handshake, forcing the other person to do all the work can be a indicators of power dynamics.
This shows, “I will not give you all my energy. I will not recognize you as an equal,” explains Dudley.
This kind of handshake is usually considered rude in corporate settings. In the world of politics, this could be a sign of relations between two countries.
JUST IN: 🇮🇩🇫🇷 Handshake between Donald Trump and Macron in Evian, France. pic.twitter.com/o2RY3rP78U
— Anonymous (@YourAnonOne) June 16, 2026
“A handshake tells you what’s going on subconsciously with a person,” says Traci Brown, body language expert and behavior analyst.
Although the US President called Macron a “very special friend” during the summit, the handshake could have been a signal about the current state of US relations with France.
“Trump should treat him as an equal, but he doesn’t,” Dudley said.
😂😂 he barely woke up!
— fed up with everything (@You___Rang) June 16, 2026
Behavioral scientist Abbie Maroño agrees that a handshake with the French president is a “limp handshake.”
“He was so passive, it didn’t seem like it was worth his time… It felt so passive that it was disrespectful,” Maroño told the outlet.
Even Trump’s lack of eye contact suggested his possible disinterest in the meeting, as he gave the impression of “God give me strength, I’m going to do things I don’t want to do,” according to Dudley.
“It feels so passive that it’s rude,” one expert said of the handshake
Image credit: Getty/Anna Moneymaker
It’s also possible that Trump was reeling from his late-night birthday celebrations, experts said.
The night before meeting Macron, the US president joined thousands of other mixed martial arts fans to watch Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) events.held on the White House lawn to commemorate his 80th birthday and America’s 250th birthday.
American fighter Justin Gaethje defeated Spanish-Georgian opponent Ilia Topuria in the main event, winning the lightweight championship title.
Image credit: Getty/Anna Moneymaker
Brown said Trump may have been tired from the late-night celebrations and therefore did not give his usual handshake.
“It looks like someone stayed up late,” he told the outlet. “He was there physically, but that was it.”
“It was off-brand for him,” he added. “The brand is power and strength, so this is the opposite of that.”
Trump may also have been tired from his birthday celebrations running late into the night, so he didn’t have the energy to shake hands as usual.
Image credit: Getty/Pool
Pointing out Trump’s lack of participation in the handshake could indicate that he is not putting “energy” into “Macron, or perhaps this event.”
“This is a classic situation where the words say one thing and the body says another,” Maroño said. “And every time the words and the body say different things. I always lean towards what the body says.”
Image credit: potus
Many years ago, when Trump first moved to Washington’s most famous address in 2017 and Macron won his own political vote in the French elections, they both have the famous handshake at the NATO Summit in Brussels that same year.
At that moment, the two of them held each other’s fists longer than most people do when they first meet.
The public saw it as a sign that no leader wanted to be the first to relinquish his grip.
“I shook hands with him, it was not an innocent thing,” Macron told French media at the time.
“We must show that we will not make small concessions, even only symbolically, but also not over-publicize anything,” he added.
Netizens also noticed Trump’s unusual attitude when greeting the French president
PakarPBN
A Private Blog Network (PBN) is a collection of websites that are controlled by a single individual or organization and used primarily to build backlinks to a “money site” in order to influence its ranking in search engines such as Google. The core idea behind a PBN is based on the importance of backlinks in Google’s ranking algorithm. Since Google views backlinks as signals of authority and trust, some website owners attempt to artificially create these signals through a controlled network of sites.
In a typical PBN setup, the owner acquires expired or aged domains that already have existing authority, backlinks, and history. These domains are rebuilt with new content and hosted separately, often using different IP addresses, hosting providers, themes, and ownership details to make them appear unrelated. Within the content published on these sites, links are strategically placed that point to the main website the owner wants to rank higher. By doing this, the owner attempts to pass link equity (also known as “link juice”) from the PBN sites to the target website.
The purpose of a PBN is to give the impression that the target website is naturally earning links from multiple independent sources. If done effectively, this can temporarily improve keyword rankings, increase organic visibility, and drive more traffic from search results.
