THE INSIDER: Stand by for hand-to-hand combat as macho leaders meet
US President Donald Trump will meet his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, for the mother of all handshakes, their first
The most important handshake of the decade will happen on Friday in the German city of Hamburg. US President Donald Trump will meet his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, for the mother of all handshakes, their first. Both will undoubtedly have been rehearsing.Putin is a notoriously macho man who likes to be photographed riding horses bareback and bare-chested, wrestling bears and the like. And since Trump has contrived to turn the humble handshake into a battle of wills, the press corps will be waiting with bated breath for what used to be a diplomatic formality to turn into a bare-knuckle fistfight.The handshake between men is believed to have originated as a gesture to prove that both participants were unarmed. These days, of course, these two men could launch an intercontinental missile with their spare pinkies while looking their adversary in the eye and shaking hands with the utmost apparent sincerity.As the UK’s Guardian newspaper opined, for Trump the handshake is less a g...
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