Internet Divided Over Trump's Handshake With France's Macron: 'Are They Arm Wrestling?'

President-elect Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron renewed their handshake war on Saturday with series of grip-and-grin struggles in Paris.

A video clip recorded outside the Elysée Palace shows the French leader greeting his once-and-future American counterpart on a red carpet where they clasped hands and embraced.

But when the men separated, each held the other's hand in a hooked-thumbs clasp that they pushed and pulled back and forth while seemingly vying for control.

After turning to head to the door, the men relaxed their grips, only to engage in a second round after mounting the stairs, where Macron extended his hand again.

Trump grabbed it tightly from above and appeared to try to force it down as Macron resisted the pressure.

The spectacle prompted a torrent of comments on social media, with one X user asking, "Are they arm wrestling???"

Another said, "Wow they're getting after it with the hands" while Trump supporters praised him dominating Macron.

"L'Arc de Trump," user @eatyourcheckers wrote before adding a French flag emoji.

Inside the palace, the men engaged in another extended handshake after Macron welcomed Trump back to Paris to attend the reopening of the iconic Notre Dame Cathedral, which was badly damaged in a 2019 fire.

Saturday's handshake battles were reminiscent of the first time Trump and Macron met ahead of a 2017 NATO summit in Brussels, where each gripped the other's hand so tightly that their knuckles turned white and they appeared to clench their jaws, according to Reuters.

Macron later said that the greeting was "not innocent" but was instead "a moment of truth" aimed at showing Trump he wouldn't be intimidated.

Also during that summit, Trump pushed aside Montenegro Prime Minister Dusko Markovic to get to the front of a group portrait in a move that Politico called the "shove heard round the world."