President Donald Trump traveled to France for the G7 summit on Monday, June 15, and people are already accusing him of being creepy and inappropriate. When Trump greeted French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte Macron, he immediately made things weird. While shaking Brigitte’s hand, he held onto her for far too long.
Some people have described the moment as awkward, but many Trump critics have argued it was more than just an “awkward” moment. They saw it as a misogynistic power move that violated Brigitte’s boundaries and appeared to make her uncomfortable.
Trump shook the French president’s hand in a relatively normal way before his super prolonged handshake with his wife.
Trump is a misogynist. https://t.co/h15q0tW67m
— Geoffrey P. Johnston😎😷🇺🇦🏳️🌈🇨🇦💉 (@GeoffyPJohnston) June 15, 2026
He engaged in a sort of tug-of-war handshake with Brigitte, making it look like she was trying to get away from him. A clip of the weird interaction has gone viral on X, where people described it as “creepy” and “utterly gross.”
Critics noticed that Trump either didn’t sense that Brigitte looked uncomfortable or didn’t seem to care that she no longer wanted to hold onto his hand. “Let go, creep!” one person wrote.
“He grabbed and shook Emmanuel’s hand quickly, but kept hers in a grip while she’s clearly uncomfortable,” someone else observed.
“Why won’t he let go of her hand when she wants to disengage?” another critic questioned.
People found it aggressive for this reason.
Let go of me Donald!🤣 https://t.co/D9ECwJfzcA
— OpinionatedCanadian🇨🇦🇺🇦 (@OpinionatedCan1) June 15, 2026
To some critics, Trump’s uncomfortable handshake seemed like part of a larger pattern. “Once a perv…ALWAYS a perv,” someone concluded. “That was SO inappropriate and SO hyper aggressive!”
“So strange,” another person commented. “I’m guessing that’s his way of showing his ‘power/control’ over women.”
A lot of women on social media could imagine how Brigitte might’ve been feeling in that moment when Trump wouldn’t let go of her hand. “Any living breathing woman understands what’s happening here,” a critic noted. “She is thinking ‘Ugh’ she’s creeped out and can’t get away fast enough… now I’m creeped out on her behalf..Ugh! How dare he not give her her hand back when she wants it!”
At the same time, some people could not refrain from making jokes about Trump’s hand makeup.
French President Macron was slapped by his wife 😬 pic.twitter.com/58yV2gtGOF
— kira 👾 (@kirawontmiss) May 26, 2025
While many people agreed that the prolonged handshake seemed super creepy, some joked that it could explain his frequent hand bruising. You might remember how the White House previously tried to say that the bruises on Trump’s hands were caused by all the handshaking he does.
“Gotta make it look like this is the reason his hand is bruised,” someone joked.
While another person concluded, “That’s why his hand is bruised. Women trying to get away.”
Trump’s uncomfortable interaction with the Macrons comes a few months after he mocked them. In May 2025, a viral video made it look like Brigitte shoved her husband or slapped him in the face. The French president later dismissed the footage, saying, “There’s a video showing me joking and teasing my wife and somehow that becomes a sort of geo-planetary catastrophe, with people even coming up with theories to explain it.”
But in April 2026, Trump was still talking about the viral clip. He said, “I call up France, Macron, whose wife treats him extremely badly. Still recovering from the right to the jaw.”
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