It was the cringe-inducing handshake seen   and mocked   around the world. Trump sat down with the new president of France, reached out his hand, and this was the result.What made the situation that much more awkward for Trump is that he has a well-known, albeit bizarre, habit of trying to humiliate others with his handshakes. Repeatedly, he has gone into a handshake with a foreign leader only to yank their arms and pull them in. He s a 70-year-old who cannot do a simple handshake without making everyone uncomfortable.Macron was reportedly warned ahead of time that Trump s handshakes were designed to be as awkward as possible. A Washington Post writer described the moment Macron s adviser was tipped off that an embarrassing incident was coming: Did you warn him about Trump s handshakes?  my philanthropist friend asked. A look of surprise popped on Araud s face as he inquired what exactly did that mean. Both of us told him about Trump s affinity for the alpha male, grab-and-pull power pump that always seemed to reduce the other person to a rag doll. Forewarned, Araud said he would alert Macron.So Macron came prepared. And the result was that the tables were completely turned on Trump.That was, according to Macron s own admission, by design. In a follow-up interview, Macron said he grasped onto Trump s hand with an iron grip with the intention of showing Trump he wasn t about to be made a fool of. My handshake with him, it wasn t innocent. He added:  One must show that you won t make small concessions, even symbolic ones, but also not over-publicise things, either. Macron s office confirmed the veracity of the president s comments in Le Journal du Dimanche.He described the handshake seen  round the world as a  moment of truth  for Trump. The Republican president had come to bully his European allies   instead they, to a person, stood up to him. The handshake was a symbol of that defiance.Macron might turn into the go-to guy for how to subvert Trump s outsized ego. In a later moment of pure trolling, he subtly put Trump in his place with this brutal greeting.  Bruxelles, unis avec nos alli s de @NATO. pic.twitter.com/7nyaoI8hki  Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) May 25, 2017Vive la France!Featured image via YouTube