Just when you think President Trump can’t possibly outdo himself when it comes to clunky diplomatic relations, on Tuesday while meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron at the start of a two-day official visit, he brushed a “little piece of dandruff” off of Macron’s lapel in front of photographers and reporters. Yes, really. His actual words.
Mr. President, they’re all saying what a great relationship we have, and they’re actually correct. It’s not fake news, finally. It’s not fake news. So it’s a great honor that you’re here, but we do have a special relationship. In fact, I’ll get that little piece of dandruff off … We have to make him perfect. He’s perfect. So it is really great to be with you, and you are a special friend.
Surely used to dealing with Trump by now, to his credit Macron handled the situation with grace and aplomb, just like a world leader should — and as he did last year while enduring an excruciatingly uncomfortable, 29-second long handshake with Trump. (Macron has also called Trump out on his handshake shenanigans before.)
But that doesn’t mean the rest of us have to take the high road, which is why after footage of the awkward encounter surfaced online, many people took to Twitter to express their ridicule and disbelief.
No, this isn’t an SNL skit, it’s Trump telling Macron he has dandruff on his suit and wiping it off pic.twitter.com/uJd33tRvYv
— Roland Scahill (@rolandscahill) April 24, 2018
Tired: trying to dominate a world leader with aggressive handshakes
Wired: trying to humiliate a world leader by claiming he has dandruffhttps://t.co/E4UoIp0KaO— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) April 24, 2018
2017 power move: Dominate foreign leader with outrageous public handshake
2018 power move: Publicly comment on foreign leader's possibly imaginary dandruff, wipe it off his shoulder— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 24, 2018
Last #dandrufftweet: Nobody who writes about this should say as fact that Trump wiped dandruff off of Macron. There's a very significant chance he invented fake dandruff just so he could pull this move. Carry on.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 24, 2018
HOLY SHIT. TRUMP JUST SAID HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH MACRON IS SO GOOD THAT HE BRUSHED OFF DANDRUFF FROM HIS COAT IN FRONT OF THE CAMERAS. DIPLOMATIC POWER MOVE. pic.twitter.com/IIeNVCKLKS
— David Mack (@davidmackau) April 24, 2018
Dear god what the fuck just happened with the dandruff?
— 🍺ℍ𝕖𝕣𝕖ℍ𝕠𝕝𝕕𝕄𝕪𝔹𝕖𝕖𝕣🍺 (@flyaway_k) April 24, 2018
If there's anything that strengthens relations between two countries, it's pointing out dandruff pic.twitter.com/KPxnrvtp5o
— Dave Brown (@dave_brown24) April 24, 2018
https://twitter.com/OhNoSheTwitnt/status/988795782991110144
Aggressive handshakes have been replaced by brushing off flakes of dandruff as Trump-Macron alpha moves
— Kevin Liptak (@Kevinliptakcnn) April 24, 2018
https://twitter.com/JamieOGrady/status/988792686135201793
Trump just announced to the world that he's such great pals with the French President that he could reach over & brush a bit of dandruff off his coat for him if he wanted to, and then proceeded to do just that. Oy.
Trump is an international embarrassment.@realDonaldTrump
— Ron Asher (@rmasher2) April 24, 2018
Someone had to do the Trump-Macron dandruff Veep closing credits thing: pic.twitter.com/nTf494h33V
— James West (@jameswest2010) April 24, 2018
Time to reset the “X Days Without Being An International Embarrassment” board.