After Chilly Merkel Meeting, Trump Offers Two Handshakes to Egyptian Dictator
Today Donald Trump met with Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the Egyptian President. That meeting — particularly the press spray, during which the president and visiting head of state sit in chairs and chat for the cameras — went so much better this time around than the one held two weeks ago when German chancellor Angela Merkel was in town.
During their spray, Trump infamously ignored Merkel when she asked him if they should shake hands, which led to a lot of anger in the press, given that Germany is a major ally of the United States. When it was el-Sisi’s turn, however, observers quickly noticed something different:
Oh look, Trump shook Sisi’s hand TWICE during the White House photo-op. Misogynistic pig.
— Matt Murphy (@MattMurph24) April 3, 2017
Trump just shook the hand (twice) of the autocratic Egyptian President who is a human rights violator, but he refused to shake Merkel’s hand
— Dan Henderson (@HanDenderson) April 3, 2017
To me, it’s now pretty obvious how much #Trump hates #Merkel. He shook Sisi’s hand twice ?…. without anyone asking for it. https://t.co/WjFsWuI1vb
— Lilith. (@endtimerain) April 3, 2017
It’s worth noting that while Germany is a huge ally of the United States, el-Sisi is a dictator with a penchant for locking up pro-democracy demonstrators.
Trump has previously disparaged Merkel and praised other dictators such as Vladimir Putin. Today, he repeatedly said that the United Staes would have a “long” and “strong” relationship with el-Sisi’s Egypt, even though their meeting was strongly opposed by human rights groups.
[image via screengrab]
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