7 times Melania rejected Trump's attempts to hold hands in public

Donald Trump and Melania Trump have been married since 2005 but to say that they 'lived happily ever after' might be a stretch.

Footage has recently emerged of the two wrestling to hold each other's hands as they disembarked from Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews from Morristown, NJ. The president seemed determined to hold the first lady's hand as they made their way down the steps but she wasn't having any of it.

This is pretty embarrassing for Trump a brief trip down memory lane would suggest that the president is used to this kind of rejection from his wife by now.

Ever since Trump became president people have noticed that Melania has either rejected her husband's hand in public or faked this otherwise common public display of affection.

Let's go back to May 2017, where shortly after touching down in Tel Aviv, Israel, Trump reached for Melania's hand only for her to literally swat it away.

Fast forward to February 2018, when Trump and Melania exited the White House to board Marine One on the way to Ohio. Trump again tried to grab Melania's hand only to fail. In fairness to Trump, Melania was wearing her coat on her shoulders like a mob boss, so he was really only grabbing at sleeve.

There was also this moment from April 2018, when meeting with Emmanuel Macron, Trump awkwardly tried to grasp Melania's, just with his fingers only for her to fend him off as best she could.

In August 2018, the author Nell Scovell compiled a series of photos of Melania and Donald attempting the show the world that they were holding hands but on closer inspection, they were just lightly touching each other.

It's not just hand-holding either that Melania seems to object too. Here she is in June 2020 refusing to smile after Trump appeared to ask her to do so.

And who could forget this iconic moment at his inauguration?

You can hardly blame her, especially when the president does this in public.

In December 2018, body language expert Patti Wood, commented on the couple after a set of particular awkward Christmas photos emerged of the couple. Speaking at the time Wood told InStyle:

If you look at that photo and don’t move in on it tightly at all, you can feel the tension in it. There’s many things that show affection, care, a desire to merge — that aren’t present.

It’s a loose handhold. If you look at her hand, it is bent around his and slightly lifting his up. But you can see where he’s not fully joining in by the way that his thumb is awkwardly out. It’s very odd.

If you look at it closely, you see that the thumb is straight and pointing at him as opposed to resting or curling around her, and doing what would be normal to show a return of affection.

Nearly two years on from this and it would appear that the Trumps are still trying to master the art of hand-holding.