I share with President Trump a mild germophobia, mostly triggered by the ritual of shaking hands. I often wish we could revert to the quaint Mad Men-era tradition of ladies wearing gloves in social settings, so I could avoid having to douse my palms with antibacterial goop every time I engage in this most civilized of greetings.
Unfortunately for the president, the handshake is a necessary and unavoidable part of the job and one often performed under the watchful eyes of the world press. Remember when he met Putin in Vietnam last year? Their handshake interaction was evaluated like Goldilocks’s bed. (Too hard? Too soft? Just right?) The Merkel-Trump handshake, dubbed the one “heard round the world” for its deafening awkwardness, is the stuff of transatlantic legend. At the president’s first state dinner, held last month at the White House, French president Emmanuel Macron seemed to offer a poignée de main plus douce after his first greeting of Trump last year was considered too, well, heavy-handed. Next month’s Kim Jong-un encounter is already stirring breathless speculation (and some humorous memes) about how the two will interact. Handshake? No handshake? Blinking contest? Arm wrestle?
