Macron was warned about Trump's awkwardly aggressive handshake before their meeting

Thomson Reuters

Trump and Macron's awkward handshake.

The new president of France was warned about President Trump's aggressive hand-shaking prior to their meeting earlier this week, the Washington Post writes.

At a Washington D.C. gathering, the French ambassador to the US told Washington Post reporter Jonathan Capehart that he had advised French President Emmanuel Macron in a memo on how to react when meeting Trump for the first time at the NATO conference on Thursday.

While the French ambassador, Gérard Araud, did not reveal what he told the Macron, Capehart and another guest jokingly told him that he should discuss Trump's handshake with Macron.

At the Thursday summit, Trump did shake Macron's hand intensely, and the initial meeting and handshake grip between the two world leaders prompted major social media scrutiny. The two leaders' knuckles went white during the handshake, according to observers, and Trump seemed to want to disengage first.

When Capehart met with Araud again after the NATO summit, he asked the ambassador whether Macron had been warned.

"Yes!" replied Araud, imitating Trump's tight handshake grip.