Highly aggressive handshakes are very on-brand for Donald Trump, and overnight, he laid one of these on Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was in Washington to meet with the new US President.
It’s standard for world leaders in these situations to hold hands for a while so that photographers can capture the moment, but Trump took it to the next level, deploying his favoured, vigorous clamp-and-yank manoeuvre.
Abe went ahead and tried to grin through it as Trump gripped his paw, but his face at the end likely betrayed his true feelings:
Trump and Japanese PM Shinz? Abe’s EPIC handshake. pic.twitter.com/NdFY2qFhqr
— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) February 10, 2017
The Prime Minister’s wife Akie Abe toured a local Washington school as the two met. While first ladies traditionally host the wives of visiting heads of state, Melania Trump was not present for the tour.
During the press conference, Trump said that his administration would continue to dispute the “disgraceful decision” by an appeals court to block his travel ban, and suggested that he also plans to unveil new security measures some time soon.
“We’ll be doing something very rapidly having to do with additional security for our country,” he told reporters at the press conference. “You’ll be seeing that some time next week.”
“We are going to do whatever is necessary to keep our country safe,” he continued. “Safety is a primary reason I’m standing here today. The voters felt I would give the best security.”
Trump stood by his controversial order to temporarily ban travel from seven predominantly-Muslim countries, hinting that he is aware of threats “you could only learn of if you were in a certain position, namely President.”
He said that he would “not allow that to happen to our country”, and added “in addition we will continue to go through the court process and, ultimately, I have no doubt we’ll win that particular case.”
With Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch yet to be confirmed, the bench is currently split four-four into liberal and conservative-leaning judges.
Trump would need the support of five of these to secure his travel ban, however, The White House is said to be looking at “all the options”, another of which would be rewriting his original executive order.
On the word of a ‘senior White House official’, Sky News claim that Trump is not planning to escalate the matter to the Supreme Court, so the second option may be more likely.
U.S. media reports senior White House official says Donald Trump is not planning to escalate the travel ban suspension to the Supreme Court
— Sky News Newsdesk (@SkyNewsBreak) February 10, 2017
Source: UK Telegraph.
Photo: Chip Somodevilla / Getty.
