Specialists in body language have weighed in on an unusually weak-looking handshake shared by Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron at the G7 in Évian-les-Bains, France, arguing the brief exchange may have revealed more than either president meant to show.
The moment stood out because it looked nothing like the pair’s previous high-profile greetings, which have often been marked by prolonged, intensely physical handshakes. One of their most talked-about encounters came in 2017, when their grip reportedly stretched to nearly half a minute. Their latest meeting came on June 15, 2026, the first day of a G7 summit that had been shifted back a day to avoid clashing with Trump’s 80th birthday celebrations in Washington the day before.
Trump has long developed a reputation for assertive handshakes that involve pulling the other person inward and maintaining control of the moment. This time, though, that trademark intensity appeared to be missing.
Footage from the summit shows Trump’s hand dropping downward as Macron lifts his own to meet it. There is little of the force or repeated arm movement usually associated with a confident political greeting, and the two men appear to make minimal eye contact.
Speaking to The Huffington Post, clinical psychologist and behavioural expert Denise Dudley said Trump was “literally hanging his hand downward,” describing it as a textbook “dead fish” handshake, where the other person is left to “do all the work.”
Observers also pointed to a moment just before the handshake when Trump appears to shut his eyes, something some experts interpret as a sign he was not especially engaged in the interaction. At the summit, Trump had just arrived after hosting a White House UFC event tied to his 80th birthday and had already been drawing attention for appearing fatigued during that long weekend of celebrations.
“God give me strength, I’m about to do this thing that I don’t want to do,” Dudley said, describing what she believes the gesture communicated.
The timing of the exchange has drawn additional interest because it came the day after Trump’s late-night UFC celebration for his 80th birthday.
“It seems like someone stayed up too late,” body language expert Traci Brown told the Huffington Post.
Brown said the subdued greeting was particularly notable because it clashes with the more aggressive style Trump usually displays. She also noted that during the same visit he reportedly held Brigitte Macron’s hand for about 13 seconds, making his short and slack greeting with Emmanuel Macron look even more unusual by comparison.
“It’s off-brand for him,” she said. “His brand is power and force, and so this is the exact opposite of that.”
Behavioural scientist Abbie Maroño was similarly critical in her assessment, saying the exchange came across as weak and dismissive.
“a limp handshake for sure.”
She added: “He’s very passive, almost like it’s not worth his time… It felt so passive that it was disrespectful.”
Dudley said the greeting seemed to reflect a broader message about how Trump currently views his French counterpart.
She said the gesture suggested Trump “can’t be bothered to address this man and make it look pleasant,” forcing Macron to “come up in there and find his hand.”
She added that a dead fish handshake essentially signals “I’m not going to give you my full energy. I’m not going to acknowledge you as an equal.”
That interpretation jars somewhat with the language Trump used publicly during the summit, where he described Macron as “a very special friend.”
Brown said handshakes “tell you what’s going on deeply unconsciously with people,” while Maroño put it more bluntly: “This is a classic situation of words saying one thing and the body saying the other. And whenever the words and the body say different things, I always kind of lean towards what a body’s saying.”