Analyzing Donald Trump's 19-Second Handshake with Shinzo Abe and How to Shake Hands Properly
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Analyzing Donald Trump's 19-Second Handshake with Shinzo Abe and How to Shake Hands Properly
Donald Trump's infamous 19-second handshake with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe revealed several signature power moves that set the business world talking. This breakdown examines Trump's unique handshake tactics, including the yank, wrist bend and lift, and hand tap, and explains why these moves create psychological dynamics that can backfire when cameras are watching. Beyond Trump's unconventional approach, this analysis covers the fundamentals of a proper business handshake that builds trust rather than dominance. Learn the mechanics that prevent awkward finger grabs, dead fish handshakes, and the common mistakes that create impressions of weakness or overcompensating insecurity in professional settings.
February 21, 2017
Trump's Signature Handshake Moves
Donald Trump's 19-second handshake with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made international headlines, but the techniques displayed weren't unique to this encounter. Trump employs several signature handshake moves that create distinct psychological dynamics in his interactions.
The first signature move is the yank. This technique off-balances the other person and likely makes them reluctant to take control of the interaction, potentially creating suspicion toward Trump. Multiple video examples show Trump employing this move consistently across different contexts.
The second move is the wrist bend and lift. While this maneuver is relatively easy for the person executing it, it places the recipient in an extremely uncomfortable position. The effect mirrors that of the yank—making the other person less likely to assert control and increasing their wariness of Trump's intentions.
The third element is the hand tap. Unlike the yank and wrist bend, which are uncomfortable, the hand tap appears relatively friendly and good-natured. However, when it follows physically dominant moves, it functions as a pacifying behavior—almost communicating "no hard feelings" after the aggressive maneuvers.
The "Strong Hands" Double-Bind
What received less media coverage was Trump's comment immediately following the Abe handshake. Trump said "strong hands" while Shinzo Abe laughed. This represents a classic Trump double-bind—a fascinating mental trap.
If Abe accepts the compliment and thinks "Yes, I do have strong hands," he's implicitly accepting that the yanking didn't happen. After all, someone with strong hands couldn't be whipped around. But if Abe thinks "No, I don't have strong hands. You just nearly ripped my arm off," he's accepted that he has weak hands and probably should have done more to prevent being yanked around.
This creates a psychological position where Trump can pull a physically dominant move while verbally complimenting the other person. In some cases, this positions him as the dominant force without significant resistance—but only if the person mentally accepts the double-bind, which isn't guaranteed.
When Power Moves Backfire
The major limitation of these covert power moves appears when news cameras are present. Once people know about these tactics, they can prepare countermeasures. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau provided a perfect example of this preparation.
When shaking hands with Trump, Trudeau braced himself against Trump's shoulder and successfully resisted two attempted yanks. This demonstrates that when you pull covert power moves—whether conscious or not—word gets out and the tactics may backfire in the long run.
The good news for most people is that in decades of observation, Trump's handshake style remains exceptionally rare. You're unlikely to need to physically brace yourself against someone's shoulder in typical business interactions.
The Purpose of a Business Handshake
The business handshake serves a fundamentally different purpose than demonstrating dominance. Handshakes are opportunities to build trust, not prove power. The goal is for your body language to show that you are warm, assertive, and not hiding anything—not to display raw power.
Treating a handshake as a dominance contest starts the interaction in an adversarial frame, which undermines business relationships. In professional business environments in America, the handshake is the most common greeting for people of all levels, both male and female. While social settings offer more greeting options, the handshake remains the go-to greeting at work.
Knowing When to Shake Hands
The biggest handshake issue is not knowing whether or not you should be shaking someone's hand. One notable example shows a policeman extending his hand to shake with a world leader, who takes it, while British Prime Minister Gordon Brown fails to shake the same policeman's hand. Brown winds up looking like a jerk because he didn't take the offered hand.
The safe approach: always shake someone's hand the first time you meet them, or if handshaking has already started among a group—don't be the person sitting out not shaking hands. Communicate your readiness to shake hands by extending your hand two to three steps before you get close enough to reach the other person. Waiting any longer creates confusion.
Proper Hand Position on Approach
Keep your fingers fairly straight on the approach. Curled fingers create problems by not giving the other person a good angle to connect the web between their thumb and forefinger with yours. Combined with lack of muscle tension (tension is what forces your hand open), curled fingers result in the dead fish handshake where the other person can only grab your fingers.
If this consistently happens to you, uncurl your fingers. You want to make it easy for the other person to connect the web between your thumb and index finger, and uncurled fingers make this much easier. German Chancellor Angela Merkel demonstrates better technique in video examples by keeping her fingers straight.
The Vertical Hand Angle
Come in with your hand at a vertical angle—this typically requires you to face the person with whom you're shaking hands. If people are often grabbing your fingers, it's usually because you're tilting your hand palm downward and not providing a big enough target for the web of your hands.
One example shows Justin Trudeau in an awkward double shake where the fact that he's facing forward makes it hard for him to give his hand at a neutral angle, creating a finger shake. The lesson: proper body positioning matters for hand angle.
Timing the Shake Correctly
Another issue causing bad handshakes is when you start shaking before you've actually connected hands. This most likely happens in groups when you've shaken multiple hands and your hand enters "shake mode" before actually touching people's hands.
For proper connection, you need to touch webs first, grasp the hand, and then shake. This is particularly important in groups because sometimes that hand just keeps going without proper connection. When executed correctly, the sequence is clear and deliberate.
The Proper Grip
Give the hand a squeeze only after the web of your hand connects. If you squeeze before that connection, you'll wind up just gripping fingers. This is what "bone crusher" types tend to do, and it doesn't make you well-liked.
Once you've got their hand in yours, give two to three shakes and you're finished. The complete sequence: decide you're shaking hands and make it clear by extending your hand two to three steps before you arrive in their space. If forced into close quarters before shaking hands, stick your hand out decisively so they see it and don't ignore you. You may even have to gently grab their other shoulder if they don't see your hand the first time.
Key Takeaways
Keep your hand at a vertical angle with your fingers uncurled, hit the web of their hand with the web of yours before grabbing, and you're set. Perhaps most importantly, if no one shakes your hand because they don't see it, you can always acknowledge it yourself and move on.
The handshake remains a fundamental element of professional interaction. While Trump's approach generates headlines, the standard business handshake focuses on building rapport rather than asserting dominance. Master the mechanics—proper timing, hand position, grip strength, and body language—and you'll create positive first impressions that open doors rather than close them.
Video Transcript
Donald Trump recently made news with his 19-second handshake
of Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe.
I'm going to break down some of the more unique aspects of Donald Trump's handshake
and in this video, we're also going to cover the more standard business handshake
which many people habitually do incorrectly
creating an impression of weakness or over-compensating insecurity.
But first, if you haven't seen it, here is Trump's 19-second handshake.
What did they say?
"Please, look at me."
Alright, thank you, press.
I said that this handshake has some unique properties
but it's actually not unique for Donald Trump
because it contains a number of his signature moves.
I'm not going to speculate on why he does these but they absolutely do exist.
First off, the yank —
this off-balances the other person
and likely makes that person reluctant to take control of the interaction
and probably makes them a little suspicious of Donald Trump.
Check out another example here...
Thank you to Mike Pence. Thank you, everybody.
...then you've got the wrist bend and lift.
Twisting the wrist this way is easy enough for the person doing it
but it puts the person on the other end in a very uncomfortable position
and it likely has the same effect as the yank
namely that it makes the other person less likely to take control of the interaction
and probably a bit more suspicious of Trump.
Here it is in a different context.
And lastly, we see the hand tap.
What's interesting here is that while both the yank and the wrist bend and lift
are uncomfortable, the hand tap is relatively nice
and it's more likely to be perceived as good-natured
but when you've just yank someone towards you and crank their wrist,
the hand tap becomes more of a pacifying behavior
almost as if to say, "No hard feelings,"
which matches what Trump said after the handshake —
something that didn't get much coverage.
Listen closely.
Alright, thank you, press.
Thank you, everybody.
Strong hands, when you...
(Shinzo laughs)
Did you hear Trump say, "Strong hands"?
This is a classic Trump double-bind.
If Abe accepts the compliment and thinks, "Yes, I do have strong hands,"
he's just accepted that the yanking didn't happen.
After all, he has strong hands so no one would be able to whip him around.
But if Abe thinks, "No, I don't have strong hands. You just nearly ripped my arm off,"
he's accepted that he has weak hands and probably should have done more
to prevent himself from being yanked around in the first place.
It creates a fascinating mental trap and it's one that we've discussed
in earlier videos on Trump which I will link to, again, in the description.
But the sum of it here is that Trump is able to pull a physically dominant move
while verbally complimenting Abe
and in some cases, this could position him as the dominant force in an interaction
without too much resistance from the other person
but all that only works if the person mentally accepts the double-bind
which isn't a guarantee
and if there are no news cameras around, much more importantly
because when there are cameras, people start to prepare for that same tactic.
Watch out how Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau
braces himself against Trump's shoulder and resist two attempted yanks.
The lesson here is that when you pull covert power moves
whether they're conscious or not, word is likely to get out
and it may wind up backfiring in the long run.
The good news for you is that in 29 years of my life,
I have never come across someone who shook hands like Donald Trump does
so you're unlikely to need to physically brace yourself against someone's shoulder
but I promise you will come across all manner of weird handshakes
and some may even be your fault
which is why I thought it would be good to cover how to shake hands properly.
This may seem obvious but it's very simple to mess up
and, who knows, maybe Donald Trump will even watch this
and we can avoid this kind of stuff happening again.
Just to be clear, the shake that I'm talking about in this video
is the business handshake — not the fist bump, not the bro hug —
maybe those will be in another video.
For this, the mentality is that handshakes are not your chance to prove how dominant you are.
There's a chance to build trust.
The goal is not for your body language to show raw power
but to show that you are warm, assertive, and not hiding anything.
So don't treat it as a dominance contest
or else you're starting off in an adversarial frame which is not great for business.
Second off, in a professional business environment, at least in America,
this is the most common greeting for people of all levels both male and female.
Obviously, you have a whole lot more options in social settings
but this is the go-to greeting at work.
Now that that is said for the mechanics,
the biggest issue is not knowing whether or not you should be shaking someone's hand.
Check out this video for an example.
Look at this lucky policeman who gets to shake hands with the president of the United States.
Oh, and here comes the prime minister of th—
No.
Gordon Brown winds up looking kind of like a jerk
because he didn't take that guy's hand
so the safe bet is to always shake someone's hand the first time you meet them
or if handshaking has already started amongst that group —
don't be the guy sitting out not shaking hands.
And you communicate that you're ready to shake someone's hand
simply by extending your hand
usually two to three steps before you get close enough to reach that person.
Wait any longer like Gordon Brown did in this clip and it could be confusing.
So it might look something like this.
Good morning.
Good morning.
The second and very important piece with regards to mechanics
is to keep your fingers fairly straight on the approach.
The problem with curled fingers is that it doesn't give the other person a good angle
to connect the web between their thumb and forefinger with yours
combine this with the lack of tension in your muscles,
after all it is tension that forces your hand open,
and it means that you'll wind up giving them the dead fish handshake
where they can only grab your fingers.
If this consistently happens to you, uncurl your fingers.
You want to make it easy for the other person to connect the web between your thumb
and index finger and the uncurled fingers make that much, much easier.
Merkel does much better in this clip.
Third, come in with your hand at a vertical angle —
this typically requires you to face the person with whom you're shaking hands.
If you find people are often grabbing your fingers,
it's usually because you are tilting your hands palm downward
and not giving a big enough target for the web of your hands.
Ignore the awkwardness of the double shake in this next clip
and just watch how the fact that Trudeau is facing forward
makes it hard for him to give Obama his hand at a neutral angle
creating a finger shake.
Another issue that causes bad handshakes
is when you start shaking a hand before you've actually connected hands
and this is most likely to happen in groups when you've shaken a bunch of hands
and your hand is just in shake mode before you're actually touching people's hands.
It looks like this.
This is a Key and Peele skit
but the handshake here is actually natural and the point stands.
If you want that handshake to connect, you need to touch webs first,
grasp the hand, and then shake.
It's particularly important to keep in mind in groups
because sometimes that hand just keeps going.
When you do it right, it looks like this.
Lastly, give the hand a squeeze only after the web of your hand connects.
If you squeeze before that connection, you will wind up just gripping fingers
and this is what bone crusher guys tend to do and it does not make you well-liked.
Here's an example of that.
Finally, once you've got their hand in yours,
give two to three shakes and you're good to go.
In some, decide that you're shaking hands and make that clear by extending your hand
two to three steps before you arrive in their space.
If you're forced to close quarters with someone before shaking hands,
stick your hand out decisively so that they see it and don't ignore you.
You may even have to gently grab their other shoulder
if they don't see your hand the first time.
And then, keep your hand at a vertical angle with your fingers uncurled,
hit the web of their hand with the web of yours before grabbing and you're set.
And perhaps the most important thing,
if no one shakes your hand because they don't see it,
you can always just do it yourself.
And if you're curious about the other elements of a great first impression
that are not just shaking hands,
we've set up a video that covers four things that you'll want to keep in mind.
If you want to check that video out, click the button on the screen now.
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