The Queen and Martin McGuinness, Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola, Paul Hollywood and various Bake-Off contestants. Some handshakes reverberate through history.
And so, we waited with bated breath yesterday afternoon for Sir Keir Starmer to grasp the hand that holds the future of Europe within its tiny fingers. The PM had big boots to fill. Or should that be gloves.
Earlier this week French president Emmanuel Macron pawed enthusiastically at Donald Trump, who reciprocated in kind. Knees were grabbed; at one point it looked like a playful thumb war was about to break out.
Could buttoned-up centrist Starmer measure up? Was he tactile enough to grab the affections of the hulking populist?
“Moments of statecraft like these define leaderships,” said Tony Blair’s former spin doctor Alastair Campbell, ahead of the meeting. No pressure then.
At 5.33pm UK time, Starmer climbed out of a huge black SUV and came face-to-shoulder with the President (the height difference was telling).
First contact was perfunctory. There was no trademark Trump death grip, no twisting or patting.
Mark Bowden, an expert in human behaviour and body language at Truthplane, believes we were witnessing a remarkable presidential volte-face and some subtle but nifty psychological mind games.
“Trump’s usual modus operandi is to try and destabilise people with his handshakes,” explains Bowden.
“We saw it with Macron. But this has become predictable, so when Starmer comes in to shake his hand he moves in close, rather than extend his hand at length, which gives him steadiness. It makes it harder to be pulled off-balance. In this case though, Trump didn’t try any of that, which is interesting. The handshake drops off fast, whereas normally Trump hangs on to show he is dominant.”
What we saw instead was a more comforting, protective Trump, who extended a hand to the side of Starmer’s arm.
“Often, Trump will plant a hand on the top of the shoulder, in a suppressing gesture. With Starmer we see a more welcoming reassurance,” adds Bowden.
Behavioural psychologist and founder and CEO of consultancy Laughology, Stephanie Davies, agrees.
“Trump is a lot more relaxed. In that first exchange when he welcomes Starmer, his body language is not adversarial or macho, it is protective, as if to say, ‘I’m taking you under my wing, don’t worry’,” she says.
After first contact Trump turned to the cameras and appeared to hold up the Easy-peeler from his lunchbox. It took a second to realise he was giving a thumb’s up.
“This signals that he thinks it will be a good meeting,” says Bowden. Meanwhile Starmer appears to nervously tug his cuffs. Bowden advises against reading too much into the gesture.
“Some may see it as nervousness, but it is a classic British gesture, like stroking down the lapels of a jacket. You see the Royal Family do it all the time,” he says.
And as the men retired into the West Wing, Starmer is the one with the upper hand, patting Trump on the shoulder, as if to say, ‘okay, we’ve done that bit, now let’s go in and get down to business’.
“We didn’t get what we normally see with Trump, it was way more cordial and statesman-like,” adds Bowden.
An hour later the press call began cordially. There were no overt power plays and another tame handshake.
Starmer used some linguistic sleight of hand to hold the President’s attention, as Davies explains.
“The Prime Minister repeatedly uses the word ‘deal’ because he knows that’s a word that Trump reacts to and that resonates with him. He then lets Trump do most of the talking.”
But all this was just a prelude. Starmer reached into his jacket pocket and produced a diplomatic coup de grace, which he delivered while looking Trump straight in the eyes, like a gangland executioner. The letter from King Charles completely threw the President.
“This was a fascinating olive branch, if not a Trojan Horse,” says Bowden.
“He pulls out this surprise. Clearly Trump had no idea, and I think that was done on purpose. It is usually Trump who throws grenades. This was a pattern-interrupt for him. It put him on the back foot. You can see in his face that he knows this is big. It’s a beautiful play to his ego.
“Starmer then uses a big loud broadcast voice to explain to everyone what’s in the letter. Trump nods his head and raises his eyebrows, looking for acknowledgement from everyone to recognise how big a deal it is. Starmer makes sure he has no time to undermine the impact of the letter by telling him to answer there and then.
“It puts Trump into a social space with Starmer. It’s a brilliant move,” Bowden says.
“The letter is Starmer’s trump card,” adds Davies. “It’s interesting that Trump hands it back for Starmer to read. Whether that’s because he doesn’t understand the full significance or whether he wants to amplify the importance, I’m not sure.
“But it adds to the friendly demeanour between them and Starmer is more playful with him afterwards, which Trumps responds to. Again, as with Macron there is a degree of sucking up, its flirtation, but Starmer is more submissively flirtatious than Macron was.”
The experts agree the Prime Minister made some very skilful and subtle plays, the impacts of which will set the tone for US and UK relations in the coming months.
Trump and Starmer are now locked into a rematch in the shape of a state visit.
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