That Awkward Moment When Macron Swerves Trump To Hug Merkel Instead
Did Emmanuel Macron just intentionally leave Donald Trump hanging?
Video footage has emerged that appears to show France’s newly elected president appearing to dodge his U.S. counterpart at the NATO summit in Brussels on Thursday.
In the clip, Macron walks toward a group of world leaders. He seems to be making a beeline for Trump, whose hands are outstretched, apparently in anticipation of a warm welcome.
But just feet away, Macron deftly swerves and embraces German chancellor Angela Merkel instead. He then shakes hands with other leaders, before eventually entering into another fierce handshake-off with Trump.
À Bruxelles, unis avec nos alliés de @NATO. pic.twitter.com/7nyaoI8hki
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) May 25, 2017
Macron shared the above video via his official Twitter account late Thursday.
It’s unclear whether the possible snub was deliberate. But it came amid a summit in which Trump took aim at NATO’s European allies for “not paying what they should be paying.”
His post is now going viral, with many fellow tweeters appearing to appreciate his apparent throwing of shade:
@RationalPanic - cool dude M. Macron. That swerve to avoid the clutches of Trump & shake Merkel's hand first was quite a manoeuvre ... 😁
— Rosh 🇪🇺 (@roshbeth) May 25, 2017
I'd like to see other world leaders follow Macron's example - walk towards Trump, body-swerve , greet someone else. He'd hate it.
— Joan Smith (@polblonde) May 25, 2017
The 'Macron swerve' - fakes out Trump and goes for Merkel. Clear reciprocity for the 'Montenegro shove'. https://t.co/xPd3tQd6X9
— W1Girl (@W1Girl) May 26, 2017
The fact that Trump has both hands palms out to greet Macron makes the last minute body swerve to Merkel even sweeter https://t.co/Iu7cYWe9UX
— TheAgent (@AgentInTheEast) May 26, 2017
Macron makes a tease, a last-sec swerve away from Trump toward Merkel, and then successfully braces for Trump's psycho hand jerk. Nice. https://t.co/ydLwVcei5F
— Abby Normal (@Sexandfoodand) May 26, 2017
To my absolute surprise I felt a milisecond of empathy for Trump at the moment of swerve
But then he tried his handshake bullshit on Macron https://t.co/LtWvQwXpRD— Ed Strafford (@EdNZ) May 26, 2017
@Ex_Dubliner_APJ See Macron play a swerve blinder?
Pure joy— 🥝paula (@kiwipaula) May 26, 2017
@Surf_Photo The Macron swerve was priceless
— Mat (@TR8Mat) May 26, 2017
Fabulous shade thrown by Macron here. The swerve, the handshake order, the alpha arm pat (which Trump tries to equalise). https://t.co/svgcHiiScN
— Daniel Maier (@danielmaier) May 26, 2017
@Vallmeister @EmmanuelMacron This is priceless! From the swerve, to how many hands he shakes before trumps, to trump then trying to pull him in forcefully....
— Nicole Burns (@NicoleBurns9) May 25, 2017
Trump’s nine-day jaunt to the Middle East and Western Europe has been marked by multiple awkward moments — from him ignoring Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s wave request and Pope Francis looking super sad in a photo call to other weird handshake incidents with Macron and Tajikistan’s strongman president, Emomali Rahmon.
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
