Melania Fails to Take Trump's Hand, and Internet Notices

Innocent flub? Public diss? Either way, President Trump and wife Melania provided an unintentionally buzzy moment upon their arrival in Tel Aviv. Watch it via this video clip from the newspaper Haaretz. It shows the president reaching back to take wife Melania's hand on the airport tarmac and then her, well, not taking him up on it. That has triggered lots of coverage along these lines in the Daily News: She "refused to hold her husband's hand and then slapped it away." A post at the Daily Beast raises the ante on that sentiment.

But many also were taking a more middle-ground approach, hedging descriptions of Melania's action with phrases like "appeared to be swatting" (People) or "seems to swat away" (Los Angeles Times). The Washington Post, meanwhile, offered one of the most charitable explanations: "Or maybe, upon close inspection of the footage, perhaps she just missed grabbing his outstretched hand, like a trapeze artist flubbing the catch," writes Emily Heil. She notes that Trumpian hand-holding is a favorite topic of White House watchers, meaning the two ought to at least "work on their choreography" if they want to avoid feeding the memes. (This isn't the first time Melania has seemed to flinch at her husband's touch.)