вЂњIf youвЂ™re a politician at the rope line,вЂќ Wolf Blitzer pointed out on CNN, вЂњyouвЂ™ve got no choice.вЂќ вЂњLook,вЂќ Trump said, вЂњif I have to do it, I do it.вЂќ вЂњHow are you going to run for office and not press the flesh?вЂќ Stone Phillips asked him on NBC. In 1999, when Trump toyed with the idea of running for president, his anti-handshake posture briefly became a topic of conversation among the talking heads on TV. вЂњI feel much better after I thoroughly wash my hands,вЂќ he said in The Art of the Comeback in 1997. вЂњThe first thing he did,вЂќ OвЂ™Donnell once told me. Once ensconced again in an office, he was sure to hustle to a bathroom to lather his hands with soap.

As much as Trump needed the energy of the crowds, he loathed the actual reality of close-proximity intermingling, gamblers clamoring to shake his hand or merely to touch him for luck. He was вЂњpreoccupied by a fear of communicable disease,вЂќ according to Jack OвЂ™Donnell, a former Trump casino executive in Atlantic City.

вЂњYou have germaphobia,вЂќ the shock jock Howard Stern said to him on his show in 1993. IвЂ™m constantly washing my hands, and it wouldnвЂ™t bother me if I never had to shake hands with a well-meaning stranger again,вЂќ he said in Surviving at the Top, his book that was published in 1990, likening himself to the eccentric Howard Hughes on account of their shared вЂњaversion to germs.вЂќ вЂњIвЂ™ve always had very strong feelings about cleanliness. ItвЂ™s bad.вЂќ But the absence of the simple gestures said just as much.ДЄll of the conspicuous handshaking, and in the face of a deadly disease no less, really was quite something to behold for everybody whoвЂ™s known Trump for a long time, or who has been watching Trump for a long time, or who simply has done the requisite reading. ThatвЂ™s good,вЂќ Trump said-unconvincingly.Д«ut by Monday, there he was, in the White House, not shaking any hands, and not bumping any elbows, either, cringeworthy or otherwise. Trump responded with a slight grimace, a sucking in of air, and an awkward attempt to touch elbows. And he tried to shake hands with an executive from the health care company called LHC Group.Д«ruce Greenstein, however, left him hanging, instead offering a best-practices elbow bump. He shook hands with a vice president of CVS. He shook hands with the president of Walgreens. He shook hands with the CEO of Quest Diagnostics. In the Rose Garden last Friday, for instance, when he declared a national emergency, вЂњtwo very big words,вЂќ as he put it, Trump also nonetheless shook a bunch of hands.

вЂњWhat IвЂ™ve been thinking on this issue of one of the more famous germaphobes in the world sort of deliberately shaking hands recently,вЂќ Trump biographer Gwenda Blair said, вЂњis that it seemed to have been some kind of show of strength-excuse me, of presumed strength-and invulnerability, a way to telegraph that he is not cowed, not scared, not going to be intimidated.вЂќ вЂњItвЂ™s more important for him to be right than to do right.вЂќ вЂњItвЂ™s a subconscious, if not conscious, way of saying, вЂRelax! EverythingвЂ™s OK!вЂ™ Because if everything is not OK, he was wrong, and he can never be wrong,вЂќ added Alan Marcus, a former Trump publicist. вЂњHe went from being a germaphobe to being a germaholic,вЂќ former Trump Organization executive vice president Louise Sunshine told me. He so stubbornly kept shaking hands, though, in the estimation of people who know him well, even as the spread of the virus started to spike, in an instinctual effort to avoid any implicit admission that he whiffed on preparedness or miscalculated the virusвЂ™ severity and to project as well his preferred patina of sanguine vigor and insusceptibility. A self-described вЂњgermaphobe,вЂќ вЂњgerm freakвЂќ and вЂњclean-hands freak,вЂќ Trump over the years has called the practice of the handshake вЂњbarbaric,вЂќ вЂњdisgusting,вЂќ вЂњvery, very terribleвЂќ and вЂњone of the curses of American society.вЂќ And he made this bugaboo of his nothing if not characteristically explicit. For most of his life, he didnвЂ™t just shun shaking hands. What was remarkable about TrumpвЂ™s obstinacy to that point wasnвЂ™t that he was flouting elite expertsвЂ™ advice-more or less par for the course-but rather that he wasnвЂ™t jumping at this opportunity to revert to one of his strongest and longest-standing prepolitics precepts.

You think thats a handshaker