https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2017/05/23/the-donald-and-melania-hand-holding-insanity/Melania Didn’t Slap Trump’s Hand Away
May 23, 2017
RUSH: You know, I meant to mention this yesterday. Let me mention it now and get it out of the way, because this video has gone viral. It reminds me, I got another email today when the president and his entourage arrived via helicopter at the tarmac in Tel Aviv to split for Rome, the helicopter doors open and the president was the first out. The email said, “This guy… You know, after yesterday, I would think this guy would know better! He doesn’t let his wife get off first!
“He storms out, says, ‘Look at me, look at me,’ and his wife comes out meekly a little bit later. It’s unreal the way Trump treats his wife.” I said, “I’d better address this.” Ladies and gentlemen, there is a protocol rule that the president of the United States is always the first through any doorway, including wives, spouses, mistresses, daughters, any other women. The president goes through every doorway first. You know who told me this? Trump! You know how I know this? It’s because he was apologizing for going before my wife through a doorway one day.
He said, “It’s a rule. Presidents have to go through the door first.” I looked into it, and I found out it’s true. It is official presidential protocol. There are reasons for it. (sigh) I don’t have enough time to get into them now, but there’s a reason why presidents are first through any door, particularly in public. The president’s the first off Air Force One, the first off the helicopter. Now, the reference to, “After what Trump did yesterday with Melania, I don’t think he should ever be the first off! He should always show deference to her!”
They’re walking on a red carpet. They just arrived somewhere. I don’t know where this was. They’d arrived… Maybe it… (interruption) Was it Israel? It wasn’t Saudi Arabia. Okay, so they’d arrived in Israel, and Melania is trailing Trump on his left side and catches up and he reaches back, and she touches his hand and draws even with him, and then they continue on to wherever they were going. When this video happened, I first saw it on one of my tech blogs filled with obscenities about what a reprobate Trump is.
“Now his marriage is falling apart! Now his wife doesn’t respect him. Look what she did! She slapped his hand away. I mean, right there in Israel when the world’s cameras are on him, she just slapped his hand away!” That’s not what happened. (interruption) Is that what you think happened? She did not! It did not… That is not what happened. He was reaching back to make sure… (interruption) She’s in heels! Everybody’s moving past. He reached back to make sure she was there, and she gave what was the equivalent of a fist bump. He reaches back, “Are you there?”
She touches his hand to let him know she’s there; everything’s fine. She did not slap his hand away. It was a modified fist bump. My wife hates fist bumps. When I give her a fist bump, you know, she kind of slaps my hand away. She’s not slapping my hand away; she’s doing a fist bump without making a fist. That’s what that was! Do not doubt me. There is no way that that’s what happened. But the anti-Trump corps wants to make it look like, “Everybody hates Trump, including his wife, who knows what a pig he is and who knows what a reprobate he is.
“Here he was reaching back, trying to drag her along because she wasn’t keeping up — because she doesn’t want to be there because she’s smart enough to know she should never be anywhere with Trump because Trump’s a pig — and she was lagging behind! He reached back to yank her forward like a caveman, and she slapped his hand away.” That’s not what happened. If you look at it and if you know these two (as I happen to) he’s reaching back. Presidents also walk ahead of everybody else, including going through doors first.
And if you paid attention to other video on this trip, you would have seen evidence of that. She’s either a full yard and a half behind or a step or two. It’s the protocol. But that was not her slapping his hand away. But it has gone viral, and that’s what everybody thinks it was, because — and look at what they’re imagining. “Yeah, he’s just a PIG! She regrets marrying the guy, and she wanted to publicly humiliate him for all of us! She knows he’s hated, and she knows it’s justified. She was doing it for us.” I mean, some of the stuff that’s out there? I’m tired of the insanity. I’m tired of it.
