U.S. President , , has gone viral on after receiving a dominating handshake from the king of the Netherlands.
King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima met Trump at a Summit in The Hague on June 24.
Máxima’s own reaction to Trump previously after some felt she had mocked the president’s mouth movements.
Haiyun Jiang-Pool/Getty Images
Why It Matters
The Dutch king’s reaction to Trump has also gone viral after it was compared to past moments when the U.S. president treated other world leaders to a commanding handshake. French President and former Canadian Prime Minister are among world leaders who have previously tried to .
Experts have opined for years on the strategy behind , with Florin Dolcos, a psychology professor at the University of Illinois, telling the Huffington Post in 2017: “It goes down to asserting dominance. Why he wants to do that? I don’t know. It looks, to me, like he is trying too hard.”
What To Know
A video of the Dutch king appearing to yank Trump’s hand has received 4.2 million views and 400,000 likes since being posted on TikTok last week.
The begins with a series of Trump’s past handshakes with Russian President , U.S. Justice and then-U.S. Vice President .
The tough handshakes typically involve Trump yanking the other person’s hand toward his body, sometimes pulling them off balance in the process.
Willem-Alexander appears to have come prepared, however. He managed to pull Trump’s hand toward him, replicating the president’s technique.
The Dutch king’s handshake with Trump came on the same day that the queen caused a stir by appearing to mock the U.S. president.
Footage of the moment has appeared on X, formerly Twitter, with one user , “Queen Maxima mimicking Trump’s mouth movements really got me.”
What People Are Saying
The TikTok video has received more than 2,000 comments, with one user writing: “Imagine having to have a dominate handshake to feel powerful.”
Another wrote: “He understood the assignment.”
Williams Brown is chief royal correspondent for Regalrumination.com, based in London. You can find him on at and read his stories on Regalrumination.com‘s
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