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.
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:
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.