First, they shared an awkward handshake. Then, United States President Donald Trump complimented France’s First Lady Brigitte Macron’s “physical shape.”
“You’re in such good shape. She’s in such good physical shape. Beautiful,” Trump told the French president’s wife, who was standing next to US First Lady Melania Trump.
The awkward exchange came after France’s President Emmanuel Macron and wife welcomed Trump and Melania to Paris on the eve of Bastille Day.
On first arriving, Trump kissed Brigitte Macron Parisian-style, once on each cheek, before taking both her hands for a prolonged grip, in which he appeared to jerk her left arm towards him as she appeared to be struggling to get him to let go.
It was an off-script start to a carefully-choreographed visit to Paris which on Friday will see Trump and Macron together for the Bastille Day celebrations, as well the couple dining together on Thursday evening at the Eiffel Tower.
Trump spoke to Brigitte Macron as she and Melania left Les Invalides -- the complex of buildings that serve as a monument to the French military in central Paris -- for a tour of other site of the French capital.
It’s not the first awkward greeting between Trump and a Macron. In May, Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron shared a long, tense handshake during their first meeting in Brussels. The French leader later said his white-knuckled grip had a deeper meaning.
Photograph: Yves Herman/Reuters
