WASHINGTON– After his meeting with President Donald Trump in the United States, French President Emmanuel Macron went to the airport to return to France but missed his flight after stopping to shake Trump’s hand for the 1,069th time.
During their meeting inside of the White House, news reporters counted that Emmanuel Macron had shaken Trump’s hand a total of 749 times, with all the other handshakes happening when he had first arrived and then after the televised meeting.
“President Trump, it was so good to see you again,” said Emmanuel Macron while grasping Trump’s hand tight and pulling him in for a hug goodbye. “This was a very productive meeting and I’m sure we’re going to have many more of these interactions with each other. Now come here and give me a handshake, my friend.”
While shaking and then re-shaking Trump’s hand, the pilots of Macron’s Airbus plane had repeatedly announced that they were ready to depart and had been sitting idling at the airport for over two hours as the president of France stopped to get one more handshake in before going back to his country.
According to Macron, it wasn’t all bad news that his own personal presidential plane had got tired of waiting for him and had taken off without him, saying that he could now stay a few more days and continue holding Trump’s hand.
