After some brief confusion, President Donald Trump was able to carry out the traditional handshake of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Manila on Sunday. The Internet certainly took note of the President’s struggle.
While at the summit, Trump seemed to struggle with the cross-body “ASEAN-way handshake,” where leaders cross their arms one over the over and grasp hands with other participants. He corrected himself after initially crossing his hands and attempting to use both to shake Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc’s hand.
Trump has been known to engage in interesting hand shakes with world leaders in his one year since taking office. Many times, images of the interactions become prime Internet fodder. At the G20 summit in July, for example, Trump demonstrated his now-famous grip during a handshake with Britain’s Theresa May.
Here’s a look at how Twitter reacted to Trump’s latest awkward handshake:
good luck to whoever has three weeks to get this regional production of Mamma Mia! into shape pic.twitter.com/eCZ81VxbMi
— Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) November 13, 2017
Pooler @MarkLandler clarifies that Trump’s “facial expression during the handshake was more of an exaggerated grimace than a smile.”
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) November 13, 2017
https://twitter.com/JonLemire/status/929892275303325696
https://twitter.com/jrhennessy/status/929890106143416320?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.businessinsider.com%2Ftrump-asean-handshake-awkward-2017-11
God bless the @AP photographer who captured this amazingly awkward moment. https://t.co/WAlVVmaJbs
— Bryan Lowry (@BryanLowry3) November 13, 2017