“The Daily Show” host Jon Stewart was in rare form Monday evening, expertly skewering Donald Trump for what he dubbed his “fucking weird habit” that was on full display when Donald appeared at the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris over the weekend.
“How fucking weird he is about shaking hands,” Stewart quipped.
“Top-down, up-down, bottom, side to side, grab it, hit me on the flippity.”
Stewart then made fun of Trump’s latest so-called business venture: A fragrance line he’s named “Fight, Fight, Fight.” He promoted them with a photo of himself sitting next to First Lady Jill Biden, who was also in attendance at the Notre Dame Cathedral event.
“You fucking won. You won,” Stewart said. “You don’t have to push merch anymore. I find it hard to believe I’m saying this, but it’s beneath you.”
Trump claims his strange handshake is no big deal.
“It’s just a firm shake.”
But as Vox reported back in 2017, there’s more to it than just a firm shake.
While most people are acutely aware of these power dynamics — lab experiments Renshon cites in his book have found that even infants can figure out which adults are high-status — there are some people who care so much about their status that they are willing to fight to establish dominance. Donald Trump is, by his own account, one of those people: The common thread in all 12 of his books is an obsession with his status, of showing that he’s better off than the people he’s competing with.
In other words, Trump insists on being seen as the alpha male. It’s part of his larger insecurity. He knows he’s a weak and feckless little man, so he has to try and show others up to hide his own failings.
It make just look like a strange way of shaking hands, but it speaks volmes about Donald Trump’s derangement.